Ver. 15. With the 14th verse the description terminates. A worthless and a wicked person is he who does such things. The point lies in the characteristic out of which the conclusion is drawn: therefore his ruin will suddenly come upon him, ete. Regarding TS, the root-meaning of which is illustrated by Amos ii. 13, vid. at 1. 26. Den is an old accus. of an absol. 8B, of the same meaning as YNB, used as an adverbial accus., both originating in the root-idea of splitting, opening, breaking out and breaking forth. ‘ Shall be is made by means of a quick movement hither and thither; and so also is speaking, for the instrument of speech, particularly the tongue, is set in motion. Only the meaning precidere, circumcidere, does not connect itself with that rootidea: bp in this signification appears to be a nilance of Wp, stringere.
broken to pieces” (as a brittle potter’s vessel, Ps. ii. 9, Isa. xxx. 14, Jer. xxix. 11) is a frequent figure for the destruction (12) of an army (cf. Arab. dnksar dljysh), of a city or a state, a man. |S) continues the 12 as xxix. 1: there shall be as it were no means of recovery for his shattered members (ΕἾ.). Without the Vav this NBD |S would be a clause conceived of accusatively, and thus adverbially: without any healing.
Vers. 16-19. What now follows is not a separate section (Hitzig), but the corroborative continuation of that which precedes. The last word (Ὁ), strife) before the threatening of punishment, 14d, is also here the last. The thought that no vice is a greater abomination to God than the (in fact satanical) striving to set men at variance who love one another, clothes itself in the form of the numerical proverb which we have already considered, pp. 12, 13. From that place we transfer the translation of this example of a
16 There are six things which Jahve hateth, And seven are an abhorrence to His soul:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood;
18 An heart that deviseth the thoughts of evil, Feet that hastily run to wickedness,
19 One that uttereth lies as a false witness, And he who soweth strife between brethren.
The sense is not, that the six things are hateful to God, and the seventh an abomination to Him besides (Lowenstein); the Middaform in Amos i. 3-ii. 6, and in the proverb in Job v. 19, shows that the seven are to be numbered separately, and the seventh is the non plus ultra of all that is hated by God. We are not to translate: sex hecce odit, for 719,37 (ὉΠ, |) points backwards and hitherwards, but not, as MDX, forwards to that immediately following; in that case the words would be nox wi, or more correctly ΠΌΝΠ wv. But also Hitzig’s explanation, “ These six things (viz. vers. 12-15) Jahve hateth,” is impossible; for (which is also against that hecce) the substantive pronoun Ann, Π)Π (ANF, 137) is never, like the Chald. 7 (i871), employed as an accus. in the sense of OFN¥, jy, it is always (except where it is the virtual gen. connected with a preposition) only the nom., whether of the subject or of the predicate; and where it is the nom. of the predicate, as Deut. xx. 15, Isa. li: 19, substantival clauses precede in which ΤΠ (An) represents the substantive verb, or, more correctly, in which the logical copula resulting from the connection of the clause itself remains unexpressed. Accordingly, 'n Nn’ is a relative clause, and is therefore so accentuated here, as at xxx. 15 and elsewhere: sex (aunt) ea que Deus odit, et septem (sunt) abominatio anime ejus. Regarding the statement that the soul of God hates anything, vid. at Isa. i. 14. ΓΔ, an error in the writing occasioned by the numeral (vid. xxvi. 25), is properly corrected by the Keri; the poet had certainly the singular in view, as iii. 32, xi. 1, when he wrote nayin. The first three characteristics are related to each other as mental, verbal, actual, denoted by the members of the body by means of which these characteristics come to light. The virtues are taken all together as a body (organism), and meekness is its head. Therefore there stands above all, as the sin of sins, the mentis elate tumor, which expresses itself in elatum (grande) supercilium: nin DY, the feature of the 09, haughty (cf. Ps. xviii. 28 with 2 Sam. xxii. 28), is the opposite of the feature of the Dy nw, Job xxii. 29; [Y is in the O. T. almost always (vid. Cant. iv. 9) fem., and adjectives of course form no dual. The second of these characteristics is the lying tongue, and the third the murderous hands. ‘P2"D7 is innocent blood as distinguished from ‘p37 D4, the blood of the innocent, Deut. xix. 13.1
Ver. 19. The sixth: “A speaker of lies, a tongue of falsehood,” is hateful to God. It is one subject which is thus doubly characterized. 0°21 are fictions, and 1p is the disfiguring (deformatio) of the actual facts. They are purposely placed together in tlis connection. The derivations of these synonyms are obscure; Fiirst gives to the former the root-idea of spinning (properly knotting together), and to the latter that of painting. 0°33 is introduced
1 The writing o> follows the Masoretic rule, vid. Kimchi, Michlol 2056, and
Heidenheim under Deut. xix. 10, where in printed editions of the text (also in Norzi’s) the irregular form »p) p7 is found. Besides, the Metheg is to be given to “D7, so that one may not read it dom, as e.g. ΓΟ Gen. vii. 11, that one may not read it “wiv.
to support spw." It would also be verbally permissible to interpret "pY JY in the sense of 7PY nv, like xxv. 18, as in apposition to n’313; but in the nearest parallel, xiv. 15, the idea is personal, for it is said of the 1pw sy that he breathes out lies. In that place there can be no doubt that the clause is a verbal one, and M5 finitum, viz. Hiph. of ΕΒ, This Hiph. signifies elsewhere also sufflare, xx. 8, afjlare, Ps. x. 5, Ezek. xxi. 36, perflare, Cant. iv. 16, anhelare (desiderare), Ps. xii. 6, Hab. ii. 3, but with D’r2, efflare, a synonym to 135, as 33 and ἢ ΘΠ, which has (cf. xii. 17) no secondary meaning in use, but is mostly connected with Ὁ], not without reference to the fact that that which is false is without reality and is nothing more than nm 537. But what kind of a form is m5’, where it is not, as xiv. 5, the predicate of a verbal clause, but in connection with o'213, as here and at xiv. 25, xix. 5, 9 (once with 72\px, xii. 17), is the subject of a substantival clause? That which lies nearest is to regard it as a noun formed from the fut. Hiph. Such formations we indeed meet only among proper names, such as 1S’, 3), BYP’; however, at least the one n. appell. 2° (an adversary) is found, which may be formed from the Hiph. as well as from the Kal. But should not the constr. of m5’ after the form 327" be 75°? One does not escape from this consideration by deriving m‘s’, after the forms Y'9, δ), 1, Ὁ, and the like, from a secondary verb ΠΡ", the existence of which is confirmed by Jer. iv. 31, and from which also nd’, Ps. xxvii. 12, appears to be derived, although it may be reduced also, after the form 27° (with 3%), to M57. But in this case also one expects as a connecting form 5) like 1), as in reality 05° from ΠΕ") (cf. 23k, Dv, from Dak, nov). Shall it now be assumed that the Kametz is treated as fixed? This were contrary to rule, since it is not naturally long. Thus the connection is not that of the genitive. But if m5’ were a substantive formed with the preformative of the second modus like pipe? [1 Sam. xvii. 40], or were it a participial intensive form of active signification such as 8°), then the verbal force remaining in it is opposed to the usage of the language. There remains nothing further, therefore, than to regard M5. as an attributive put in the place of a noun: one who breathes out; and there is a homogeneous example of this, for in any other way we cannot explain 4D", Hccles. i. 18. In 19d the numeral proverb reaches its point. The chief of all that God hates is he who takes
1 Isaak Albo thus distinguishes these synonyms in his dogmatic, bearing the title Opy “BD, 11. 27.
a fiendish delight in setting at variance men who stand nearly related. Thus this brief proverbial discourse rounds itself off, coming back again to 140 as a refrain.
After these three smaller sections, the teacher of wisdom returns here to the theme of the eighth: Warning against sins of the flesh, whose power and prevalence among men is so immeasurably great, that their terrible consequences cannot sufficiently be held up before them, particularly before youth.
20 Keep, my son, the commandment of thy father, And reject not the instruction of thy mother.
21 Bind them to thy heart evermore, Fasten them about thy neck.
The suff. -2m refers to the good doctrine (cf. vii. 3) pointed out by my and 1M; the masc. stands, as is usual (e.g. 1. 16, v. 2), instead of the fem. Regarding the figure, reminding us of the Tefillin and of Amuletes for perpetual representation, vid. under iii. 3. Similarly of persons, Cant. viii. 6. The verb 729 (only here and Job xxxi. 36) signifies to bend, particularly to bend aside (Arab. "ind, bending off, going aside; accus. as adv., aside, apud), and to bend up, to wind about, circumplicare. Ver. 22. The representation of the good doctrine is now personified, and becomes identified with it.
When thou walkest, it will guide thee;
When thou liest down, it will keep watch over thee;
And when thou wakest, it will talk with thee. The subject is the doctrine of wisdom, with which the representation of wisdom herself is identified. ‘The futures are not expressive of a wish or of an admonition, but of a promise; the form of the third clause shows this. Thus, and in the same succession as in the schema Deut. vi. 7, cf. xi. 19, are the three circumstances of the outward life distinguished: going, lying down, and rising up. The punctuation ἼΞΟΠΠΠΞ, found here and there, is Ben-Naphtali’s variant; Ben-Asher and also the Textus rec. reject the Metheg in this case, vid. Baer’s Metheg-Setzung, § 28. The verb 73, with its Hiph. in a strengthened Kal-signification, is more frequently found in the Psalms than in the Proverbs; the Arab. \,j shows that it properly signifies to direct (dirigere), to give direction, to move in a definite direction. %2Y with 9», to take into protection, we had already ii. 11; this author has favourite forms of expression, in the repetition of which he takes delight. With lying down, sleeping is associated. Ni¥'PM is, as Ps. exxxix. 18, the hypoth. perf., according to Ewald, ὃ 357a: et ut expergefactus es, illa te compellabit. Bertheau incorrectly: she will make thee thoughtful. But apart from the fact that there is no evidence of the existence of this Hiph. in the language of the Bible, the personification demands a clearer figure. my (mi) signifies mental speech and audible speech (Gen. xxiv. 63, poet., in the Talmudic’ a common word); with 3, speaking concerning something (fabulari de), Ps. lxix. 13; with the accus., that which is said of a thing, Ps. cxlv. 5, or the address, briefly for ° mw, Job xii. 8 (as 3 with accus. iv. 9 => 35): when thou art awake, wisdom will forthwith enter into conversation with thee, and fill thy thoughts with right matter, and give to thy hands the right direction and consecration.
Ver. 23. Since in 8 the idea of wisdom and of wholesome doctrine lie in one another, the author can proceed with proof:
For a lamp is the commandment, and instruction a light (Jerome, et lex lux); And a way of life, disciplinary reproofs.
That mn has here not the positive, specifically Israelitish sense, but the generalized sense of instruction in conformity with truth regarding the will of God and the duty of man, vid. p. 42. This instruction mediated by man, but of divine origin, is ix, light, which enlightens the man who submits to it; and the commandment, mx, which directs men in every case to do what is right, and forbids that which is wrong (including the prohibition Lev. iv. 2), is 02, a lamp which, kindled at that light, enlightens all the darkness of ignorance with reference to human conduct and its consequences.
1 The conjecture thrown out by Wetstein, that (Arab.) shykh is equivalent to mvp (mp), speaker, is untenable, since the verb shakh, to be old, a so-called munsarif, i.e. conjugated throughout, is used in all forms, and thus is certainly the root of shykh.
ὍΝ and 13 are related to each other as general and particular, primary and derivative. Ldwenstein accentuates incorrectly ΠῚ ΠῚ nix instead of 78 TN) (as the Cod. 1294 and the 3 Erfurt Codd.); vid. on the retrogression of the tone, not existing here, under iii. 15. The gen. 15:19 denotes the object or character of the admonition: not disciplinary in the external sense of the word, but rather moral, having in view discipline in the sense of education, i.e. moral edification and elevation. Such corrections are ὉΠ ΠΥ, the way to true life, direction how to obtain it.
To keep thee from the vile woman, From the flattery of the strange tongue.
Regarding the genitive connection Y7 NWX, a woman of a wicked character, vid. under ii. 14; and regarding the adjectival connection my a2 pwd, under ver. 17; the strange tongue is the tongue (five) of the strange (foreign) woman (vid. p. 81), alluring with smooth words (ii. 16). Ewald, Bertheau: from her of a smooth tongue, the stranger, as Symm., Theod., ἀπὸ λειογλώσσου. ξένης; but NP2n is a substantive (Gen. xxvii. 14), and as a fem. adject. form is without an example. Rather ivi npon is to be regarded as the first member and 75) as the second of the st. constr., for the former constitutes one idea, and ἢ Ὁ on this account remains unabbreviated; cf. Ps. Ixviii. 22, Isa. xxviii. 1; but (1) this syntactical phenomenon is yet problematical, vid. Friedr. Philippi, Wesen und Ursprung des St. Constr. p.17; and (2) the supposition of such an anomaly is here unnecessary.
The proemium of these twelve proverbial discourses is now at an end. Wisdom herself begins striking the note of the Decalogue:
25 Long not for her beauty in thy heart, And let her not catch thee with her eyelids; 26 Because for a harlot one cometh down to a piece of bread, And a man’s wife lieth in wait for a precious soul.
The warning 25a is in the spirit of the “thou shalt not covet,” Ex. xx. 17, and the ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ, Matt. v. 28, of the Preacher on the Mount. The Talmudic proverb ΠΡΟ WP ΠΣ NAAN (Joma 29a) means only that the imagination of the sinful act exhausts the body even more than the act itself. The warning, “Jet her not catch thee with her eyelids,” refers to her (the adulteress’s) coquettish ogling aud amorous winking. In the reason added, beginning with “1Y2 °3 (thus it is to be punctuated), there is the appositional connection ΠΟ TWX, Gesen. ὃ 113; the idea of Am goes over into 26). “DM? 733 f= 7273, R. 13, to round, vid. at Gen. xlix. 5], properly a circle of bread, is a nal round piece of bread, such as is still baked in Italy (pagnotta) and in the East hah. kurs), here an expression for the smallest piece” (F1.). Ta (constr of 193), as Job 1]. 4, Isa. xxxii. 14, is used in the sense of ὑπέρ, pro, and with TY ‘eek is connected the idea of the coming down to this low point. Ewald, Bertheau explain after the LXX., τιμὴ yap πόρνης ὅση καὶ ἑνὸς ἄρτου, γυνὴ δὲ ἀνδρῶν τιμίας ψυχὰς ἀγρεύει. But nothing is said here of price (reward); the parallelism is synonymous, not antithetic: he is doubly threatened with loss who enters upon such a course. The adulterer squanders his means (xxix. 3) to impoverishment (vid. the mention of a loaf of bread in the description of poverty 1 Sam. ii. 36), and a man’s wife (but at the same time seeking converse with another) makes a prey of a precious soul; for whoever consents to adulterous converse with her, loses not perhaps his means, but certainly freedom, purity, dignity of soul, yea, his own person. ἜΝ comprehends—as ἢν, fisher’s town [Zidon], Arab. syéd, hunter and fisher, show—all kinds of hunting, but in Hebr. is used only of the hunting of wild beasts. The root-meaning (cf. ΠΡῚΝ) is to spy, to seize.
Vers. 27-29. The moral necessity of ruinous consequences which the sin of adultery draws after it, is illustrated by examples of natural cause and effect necessarily connected:
27 Can one take fire in his bosom And his clothes not be burned? 28 Or can any one walk over burning coals And his feet not be burned? 29 So he that goeth to his neighbour's wife, No one remains unpunished that toucheth her.
We would say: Can any one, without being, etc.; the former is the Semitic “ extended (paratactic)’ construction.” The first YS has the conjunctive Shalsheleth. DN signifies to seize and draw forth a brand or coal with the fire-tongs or shovel (79, the instrument for this); cf. Arab. kid, according to Lane, “ he seized or snatched
Ver, 28. A second example of destructive consequences naturally following a certain course is introduced with D8 of the double question. pena (from ona, after the form On8, but for which non: is used) is the regular modification of gahhalim (Gesen. § 27, 2). The fem. yom is followed here (cf. on the other hand i. 16) by the rhythmically full-sounding form 7237 (retaining the distinction of gender), from 3, Arab. kwy, to burn so that a brand-mark (3, Isa. ili. 24, cautertwm) remains.
Vers. 30, 31. The thief and the adulterer are now placed in comparison with one another, in such a way that adultery is supposed to be a yet greater crime.
30 One does not treat the thief scornfully if he steals To satisfy his craving when he is hungry; 31 Being seized, he may restore sevenfold, Give up the whole wealth of his house. For the most part 30a is explained: even when this is the case, one does not pass it over in the thief as a bagatelle. Hwald remarks: S ma stands here in its nearest signification of overlooking, whence first follows that of contemning. But this “ nearest” signification is devised wholly in favour of this passage;—the interpretation, “they do not thus let the thief pass,” is set aside by Cant. viii. 1,7; for by 316, cf. Cant. viii. 7b, and 34a, cf. Cant. viii. θα, it is proved that from ver. 30 on, reminiscences from the Canticles, which belong to the literature of the Chokma, find their way into the Mashal laneuage of the author. Hitzig’s correct supposition, that > ma always signifies positive contemning, does not necessitate the interrogative interpretation: “Does not one despise the thief if...?” Thus to be understood, the author ought to have written ἮΝ or ‘9 D3. Michaelis rightly: furtum licet merito pro nfami in republica habetur, tamen si cum adulterio comparatur, minus probrosum est. Regarding W5} in the sense of appetite, and even throat and stomach, vid. Psychologie, p.204. A second is, that the thief, if he is seized (but we regard N¥2 not as the hypoth. perf., but as the part. deprehensus), may make compensation for his crime. The fut. nee thus to be understood as the potential lies near from this, that a sevenfold compensation of the thing stolen is unheard of in the Israelitish law; it knows only of a twofold, fourfold, fivefold restoration, Ex. xxi. 87, xxii. 1-3, 8 (cf. Saalschiitz, Mos. Recht, p. 554 ff.). This excess over that which the law rendered necessary leads into the region of free-will: he (the thief, by which we are now only to think of him whom bitter necessity has made such) may make compensation sevenfold, 1.6. superabundantly; he may give up the whole possessions (vid. on iin at 1. 13) of his house, so as not merely to satisfy the law, but to appease him against whom he has done wrong, and again to gain for himself an honoured name. What is said in vers. 30 and 31 is perfectly just. One does not contemn a man who is a thief through poverty, he is pitied; whiletheadulterer goes to ruin underall circumstances of contempt and scorn. And: theft may be made good, and that abundantly; but adultery and its consequences are irreparable. Vers. 32, 33. Here there is a contrast stated to ver. 30: 32 He who commits adultery (adulterans mulicrem) is beside himself, A self-destroyer—who does this.
33 He gains stripes and disgrace, And his reproach is never quenched.
ὮΝ), which primarily seems to mean excedere, to indulge in excess, is, as also in the Decalogue, cf. Lev. xx. 10, transitive: ὁ μοιχεύων γυναῖκα. Regarding being mad (herzlos = heartless) = amens (excors, vecors), vid. Psychologie, p. 254. iv'b] ΓΤ is he who goes to ruin with wilful perversity. A self-murderer—i.e. he intends to ruin his position and his prosperity in life—who does it, viz. this, that he touches the wife of another. It is the worst and most inextinguishable dishonouring of oneself. Singularly Behaji: who annihilates it (his soul), with reference to Deut. xxi. 12, Eccles. iv. 17, where ΠΩΣ would be equivalent to D3, καταργεῖν, which is untrue and impossible.’ 23 refers to the corporal punishment in-
14; but there nx Awy means agere cum aliquo, aS we say: mit jemandcm abrechnen (to settle accounts with any one).
flicted on the adulterer by the husband (Deut. xvii. 8, xxi. 5); Hitzig, who rejects ver. 32, refers it to the stripes which were given to the thief according to the law, but these would be called 729 (nid), The punctuation Nepry is to be exchanged for Hep "}) (Lowenstein and other good editors). ΙΝ has a more active signification than our “ finden” (to find): consequitur, τυγχάνει. Vers, 34, 35. One who has been stolen from is to be appeased, but not the injured husband. 34 For jealousy is the fury of a husband, And he spareth not in the day of vengeance. 385 He regardeth not any ransom, And is not contented though thou offerest to him gifts ever so great.
The connection marks 18)? as the subject; for it respects carnal intercourse with another’s wife. Jealousy is not usually 790, the glow of anger (from OM, as 72% from 12), but 7237N9N (constr. as ni), the glow of a man’s anger, who with the putting forth of all his manly strength will seek satisfaction to his wounded honour. 723, here significant for YX, with the fundamental idea of strength, firmness; cf. Arab. jabr, to make fast, to put right again something broken in pieces, particularly a broken vessel, hence Algebra, properly the operation by which an incomplete magnitude is completed (ΕἾ.). The following Mann (with the orthophonic Dagesh, as ver. 25 TaN}, and with Makkeph) is connected with 123, with definite reference to the man whom the faithless guest has made a cuckold. When the day comes in which the adultery brought to light demands and admits of vengeance, then, wounded in his right and in his honour, he knows no mercy; he pays no regard to any atonement or recompense by which the adulterer seeks to appease him and induce him not to inflict the punishment that is due: he does not consent, even though thou makest ever so great the gift whereby thou thinkest to gain him. The phrase 0°25 δ), πρόσωπον λαμβάνειν, signifies elsewhere to receive the countenance, %.e. the appearance and the impression of a man, 1.6. to let it impress one favourably; here it is used of the 753, ze. the means by which covering, i.e. non-punishment, pardon of the crime, impunity of the guilty, is obtained. Regarding 728, to consent to, vid. at 1. 10. anv, Aram. IMW, is a gift, particularly bribery. That the language may again finally assume the form of an address, it beautifully rounds itself off.
WARNING AGAINST ADULTERY BY THE REPRESENTATION OF ITS ABHORRENT AND DETESTABLE NATURE AS SEEN IN AN EXAMPLE.
The fearful desolation which adultery, and in general the sin of uncleanness, occasions in the life of the individual who is guilty of it, as well as in society, does not suffer the anthor of this discourse, directed to youth, to abandon his theme, which he has already treated of under different aspects. He takes up his warning once more, strengthens it by an example he himself had witnessed of one who fell a sacrifice to this sin, and gives it a very impressive conclusion, ver. 24 ff.
The introduction first counsels in general to a true appreciation of these well-considered life-rules of wisdom.
1 My son, keep my words, And treasure up my commandments with thee. 2 Keep my commandments, and thou shalt live; And my instruction as the apple of thine eye.
3 Wind them about thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.
The LXX. has after ver. 1 another distich; but it here disturbs the connection. Regarding ᾿ΕΝ, vid. at 11. 1; JAS refers, as there, to the sphere of one’s own character, and that subjectively. Regarding the dmper. 1M, which must here be translated according to its sense as a conclusion, because it comes in between the objects governed by 1Y, vid. αὖ ἵν. 4. There 1M) is punctuated with Silluk; here, according to Kimchi (Michlol 125a), with Segol-Athnach, mm), as in the Cod. Erfurt. 2 and 3, and in the editions of Athias and Clodius, so that the word belongs to the class ninwa pond (with short instead of long vowel by the pausal accent): no reason for this is to be perceived, especially as (iv. 4) the Tsere (é from aj) which is characteristic of the imper. remains unchanged. Regarding pyn fiw, Arab. insdn el-ain, the little man of the eye, ze. the apple of the eye, named from the miniature portrait of him who looks into it being reflected from it, wd. at Ps. xvii. 8; the ending én is here diminutive, like Syr. achuno, little brother, b’runo, little son, and the like. On ver. 3, vid. at vi. 21, 11]. ὃ. The 7 by povan were wound seven times round the left arm and seven times round the middle finger. The writing on the table of the heart may be regarded as referring to Deut. vi. 9 (the Aezuzoth).!
Vers. 4, 5. The subject-matter of this earnest warning are the admonitions of the teacher of wisdom, and through him of Wisdom herself, who in contrast to the world and its lust is the worthiest object of love, and deserves to be loved with the purest, sincerest love:
4 Say to wisdom: ‘ Thou art my sister!” And call understanding ‘ Friend;”
5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who useth smooth words.
The childlike, sisterly, and friendly relationship serves also to picture forth and designate the intimate confidential relationship to natures and things which are not flesh and blood. If in Arabic the poor is called the brother of poverty, the trustworthy the brother of trustworthiness, and abu, um (B8), achu, ucht, are used in manifold ways as the expression for the interchangeable relation between two ideas; so (as also, notwithstanding Ewald, ὃ 2730, in many Hebr. proper names) that has there become national, which here, as at Job xvii. 14, xxx. 29, mediated by the connection of the thoughts, only first appears as a poetic venture. The figurative words of ver. 4 not merely lead us to think of wisdom as a personal existence of a higher order, but by this representation it is itself brought so near, that O8 easily substitutes itself, ii. 3, in the place of O%., ‘NAN of Solomon’s address to the bride brought home is in its connection compared with Book of Wisdom viii. 2. While the 6th of NiN& by no means arises from abstr. ath, but achdth 15 derived from achajath, YW (as Ruth ii. 1, cf. NYT, iii. 2), here by Mugrash YW, properly means acquaintance, and then the person known, but not in the superficial sense in which this word and the Arab. ma’arfat are used (e.g. in the Arabic phrase quoted by Fleischer, kanna ashaab sarna maaraf—nous étions amis, nous en sommes plus que de simples connaissances), but in the sense of familiar, confidential alliance. The infin. 1” %5 does not need for its explanation some intermediate thought to be introduced: guod eo conducet tibi ut (Mich.), but connects itself immediately as the purpose: bind wisdom to thyself and thyself to wisdom thus
1 [=the door-posts, afterwards used by the Jews to denote the passages of Scripture written on the door-posts. } closely that thou mayest therewith guard thyself. As for the rest, vid. ii. 16; this verse repeats itself here with the variation of one word.
How necessary it is for the youth to guard himself by the help of wisdom against the enticements of the wanton woman, the author now shows by a reference to his own observation.
6 For through the window of my house, From behind the lattice I looked out; 7 Then saw J among the simple ones,
Discerned among the young people, a youth devoid of understanding.
‘D refers indeed to the immediately following clause, yet it actually opens up the whole following exemplification. The connection with ver. 5 would be closer if instead of the extended Semitic construction it were said: nam quum... prospicerem vidi, ete. ibn (from oon, to bore through) is properly a place where the jallley isa bowed! through. λυ (from 13%= Arab. shaniba, to be agreeable, cool, fresh) is the window-lattice or lattice- window, te. lattice for ἀνα down and raising up, which keeps off the rays of the sun. PW signifies primarily to make oneself long in order to see, to stretch up or out the neck and the head, καραδοκεῖν, Arab. atall, atal’a, and tatall’a of things, imminere, to overtop, to project, to jut in; cf. Arab. askaf of the ostrich, long and bent, with respect to the neck stretching it up, sakaf, abstr. crooked length. And ΜΞ is thus used, as in Arab. duna, but not δ᾽ αὐ, is used: so placed, that one in lati to the other obstructs the avenue to another person or thing: “I looked forth from behind the latticewindow, 1.6. with respect to the persons or things in the room, standing before the lattice-window, and thus looking out into the open air” (Fleischer). That it was far in the night, as we learn at ver. 9, does not contradict this looking out; for apart from the moon, and especially the lighting of the streets, there were star-lit nights, and to see what the narrator saw there was no night of Egyptian darkness. But because it was night 6a is not to be translated: I looked about among those devoid of experience (thus e.g. Lowenstein); but he saw among these, observed among the youths, who thus late amused themselves without, a young man whose want of understanding was manifest from what further happened. Bertheau: that I might see, is syntactically impossible. The meaning of S18) is not determined by the
APIS following, but conversely 2°28 stands under the operation of 1 (ΞΞ 3), Neh. xiii. 7), characterizing the historic aorist. Regarding "M8, vid. ati. 4. 0°22 is the masc. of ΓΞ, Arab. bendt in the meaning maiden, 33 has in correct texts, according to the rules of the accents, the 2 raphatum.}
Now follows, whither he saw the young fop [Zaffen] then go in the darkness.
8 Going up and down the street near her corner, And he walked along the way to her house,
9 In the twilight, when the day declined, _ In the midst of the night and deep darkness.
We may interpret 029 as appos.: juvenem amentem, ambulantem, or as the predicate accus.: vidi guvenem...ambulantem; for that one may so express himself in Hebrew (cf. e.g. Isa. vi. 1, Dan. viii. 7), Hitzig unwarrantably denies, The passing over of the part. into the finite, 8d, is like ii. 14,17, and that of the inf. i. 27, 11. 8. pay, Arab. suk (dimin. suwetka, to separate, from sikkat, street, alley), still means, as in former times, a broad street, a principal street, as well as an open place, a market-place where business is transacted, or according to its etymon: where cattle are driven for sale. On the street he went backwards and fcrwards, yet so that he kept near to her corner (ἰ.6. of the woman whom he waited for), 1.6. he never withdrew himself far from the corner of her house, and always again returned to it. The corner is named, because from that place he could always cast a look over the front of the house to see whether she whom he waited for showed herself. Regarding M3 for ANID, vid. at Ps. xxvii. 5: a primary form {8 has never been in use; Dn, Zech. xiv. 10, is plur. of 35. ΣΝ (from OSX, Arab. wasl, to bind) is, as a substantive, the side (as the place w fiche one thing connects itself with another), and thus as a preposition it means (like juwta from jungere) beside, Ital. allato. 77) is the object. accus., for thus are construed dept eundi (6.9. Hab. iii. 12 Num. xxx. 17, Ore ΧΙ; 22)»
Ver. 9. The designations of time give the impression of progress to a climax; for Hitzig unwarrantably denies that }t') means the twilight; the Talmud, Berachoth 3b, correctly distinguishes ‘Nn ‘Dv two twilights, the evening and the morning twilight. But the idea is not limited to this narrow sense, and does not need this, since the root-word v2 (vid. at Isa. xl. 24) permits the extension of the idea to the whole of the cool half (evening and night) of the entire day; cf. the parallel of the adulterer who veils himself by the darkness of the night and by a mask on his countenance, Job xxiv. 15 with Jer. xiii. 16. However, the first group of synonyms, Of Iya wa (with the Cod. Frankf. 1294, to be thus punctuated), as against the second, appears to denote an earlier period of the second half of the day; for if one reads, with Hitzig, oy aya (after Judg. xix. 9), the meaning remains the same as with DY 31Y3, viz. advesperascente die (Jerome), for 2} = Arab. gharab, means to go away, and particularly to go under, of the sun, and thus to become evening. He saw the youth in the twilight, as the day had declined (κέκλικεν, Luke xxiv. 29), going back- ‘wards and forwards; and when the darkness of night had reached its middle, or its highest point, he was still in his lurking-place. ne%9 ji", apple of the eye of the night, is, like the Pers. dili scheb, heart of the night, the poetic designation of the middle of the night. Gusset incorrectly: erepusculum in quo sicut in oculi pupilla est nigredo sublustris et quast mistura lucis ac tenebrarum. WN is, as elsewhere 39, particularly the middle; the application to the night was specially suitable, since the apple of the eye is the black part in the white of the eye (Hitzig). It is to be translated according to the accus., in pupilla noctis et caligine (not caliginis); and this was probably the meaning of the poet, for a 3 is obviously to be supplied to ADDN),
Finally, the young man devoid of understanding sees his waiting rewarded: like meets like.
10 And, lo, a woman coming to meet him, In the attire of an harlot and of subtle heart. 11 Boisterous is she, and ungovernable; Her feet have no rest in her own house. 12 At one time before her door, at another in the street, And again at every corner she places herself on the watch.
“ Ver. 12 (Hitzig) expresses what is wont to be, instead of a single event, ver. 11, viz. the custom of a street harlot. But she who is spoken of is not such an one; lurking is not applicable to her (cf. Job xxxi. 9), and, ver. 11, it is not meant that she is thus inclined.” But Hitzig’s rendering of ver. 11, “ she was boisterous... in her house her feet had no rest,” is inaccurate, since neither 8) nor W2U is used. Thus in vers. 11 and 12 the poet gives a characteristic of the woman, introduced by 737) into the frame of his picture, which goes beyond that which then presented itself to his eyes. We must with ver. 12 reject also ver. 11; and even that would not be a radical improvement, since that characteristic lying behind the evident, that which was then evident begins with 3 ny (and subtle in heart). We must thus suppose that the woman was not unknown to the observer here describing her. He describes her first as she then appeared. N'Y Hitzig regards as equivalent to Mw, similitude (from ΠῚ), and why? Because n'Y does not mean “ to lay against,” but “to place.” But Ex. xxxiiil. 4 shows the contrary, and justifies the meaning attire, which the word also has in Ps. Ixxiil. 6. Meiri less suitably compares 2 Kings ix. 30, but rightly explains }pn (dressing, ornament), and remarks that nv elliptical is equivalent to NWa. It is not the nominative (Bertheau), but the accusative, as nan, Ps. exliv. 12, Ewald, ὃ 279d. How Hitzig reaches the translation of 20 nayn by “and an arrow in her heart” (et saucta corde’), one can only understand by reading his commentary. The usage of the language, iv. 23, he remarks, among other things, would stamp her as a virtuous person. As if a phrase like ἜΣ 132 could be used both sensu bono and sensu malo! One can guard his heart when he protects it carefully against moral danger, or also when he purposely conceals that which is in it. The part. ΝΣ signifies, Isa. i. 8, besieged (blockaded), Ezek. xvi. 12, protected, guarded, and Isa. xlviii. 6, Ixv. 4, concealed, hidden. Ewald, ὃ 1870, refers these three significations in the two passages in Isaiah and in the passage before us to V¥, Niph. 782 (as 02); but (1) one would then more surely take “ay (cf. ina, O°D2)) as the verbal stem; (2) one reaches the idea of the concealed (the hidden) easier from that of the preserved than from that of the confined. As one says in Lat. homo occultus, tectus, abstrusus, in the sense of κρυψίνους, so it is said of that woman 3° ΤΣ, not so much in the sense of retenta cor, h.e. que quod in corde haberet non pandebat, Fr. retenue (Cocc.), as in the sense of custodita cor, que intentionem cordis mentemque suam callide novit premere (Mich.): she is of a hidden mind, of a concealed nature; for she feigns fidelity to her husband and flatters her paramours as her only beloved, while in truth she loves none, and each of them is to her only a means to an end, viz. to the indulgence of her worldly sensual desire. For, as the author further 1 Virgil’s Zneid, iv. 1.
Ver. 12. This verse shows how she conducts herself when she wanders abroad. It is no common street-walker who is designated (no “ Husterin,” Arab. kahbt, after which also the female demonname (Arab.) se’ald is explained), but that licentious married wife, who, no better than such a strumpet when she wanders abroad, hunts after lovers. The alternating DY8 (properly a stroke) Fleischer compares with the Arab. synonyms, marrt, a going over, karrt, a going back, una volta, una fiata, une fois (Orelli, Synon. der Zeit und Ewigkeit, p. 51). Regarding yin, vid. at v. 16: it is the free space without, before the house-door, or also before the gate of the city; the parallelism speaks here and at i. 20 more in favour of the former signification.
Ver. 13. After this digression the poet returns to the subject, and further describes the event as observed by himself.
And she laid hold on him and kissed him; Put on a bold brow and said to him.
The verb P is here, after its primary signification, connected with the dat.: osculum fixit ei. Thus also Gen. xxvii. 26 is construed, and the Dagesh in 45 is, as there, Dag. forte conj., after the law for which the national grammarians have coined the technical name PMID NN (veniens e longinguo, “coming out of the distance,” ze. the attraction of a word following by one accented on the penult.). The penult.-accenting of ΠΡῸΣ is the consequence of the retrogression of the accent (ΠΕΣ 2105}, which here, where the word from the first had the penult. only with Metheg, and thus with half a tone, brings with it the dageshing of the > following, as the original 4 Eurip. Herac.
penultima-accenting of 7PM does of the 12 which follows it, for the reading ia by Léwenstein is contrary to the laws of punctuation of the Tewtus receptus under consideration here.’ As 12 and "ὃ have received the doubling Dagesh, so on the other hand, according to Ewald, ὃ 1930, it has disappeared from MY (written with Raphe according to Kimchi, Michlol 145a). And as ΠΡῸΣ) has the tone thrown back, so the proper pausal “OX! is accented on the ult., but without attracting the 15 following by dageshing, which is the case only when the first of the two words terminates in the sound of ὦ (ah). 35 ἸΜΠ is said of one who shows firmness or hardness of countenance (Arab. slabt alwajh), i.e. one who shows shamelessness, or, as we Say, an iron forehead (F'l.).
She laid hold on him and kissed him, both of which actions were shameless, and then, assuming the passivity and modesty befitting the woman, and disregarding morality and the law, she said to the youth:
14 ““ To bring peace-offerings was binding upon me, To-day have I redeemed my vows.
15 Therefore am I come out to meet thee, To seek thy face, and have found thee.”
We have translated pes ‘nt “ peace-offerings,” proceeding on the principle that pow (sing. only Amos v. 22, and on the Pheenician altar at Marseilles) denotes contracting friendship with one (from pov, to hold friendly relationship), and then the gifts having this in view; for the idea of this kind of offering is the attestation and confirmation of communion with God. But in view of the derivatives D'D2Y and Dw, it is perhaps more appropriate to combine pow with 05%, to discharge perfectly, and to translate it thankpayment-offering, or with v. Hofmann, a due-offering, where not directly thank-offering; for the proper eucharistic offering, which is the expression of thanks on a particular occasion, is removed from the species of the Shelamim by the addition of the words TTAMOY (Lev. vii. 12-25). The characteristic of the Shelamin is the division of the flesh of the sacrifice between Jahve and His priests on the one side, and the person (or persons) bringing it on the other side: only one part of the flesh of the sacrifice was Jahve’s, consumed by fire (Lev. iii. 16); the priests received one part; those who brought the offering received back another part as it were from the altar of God, that they might eat it with holy joy along with their household. So here the adulteress says that there was binding upon her, in consequence of a vow she had taken, the duty of presenting peace-offerings, or offerings that were due; to-day (she reckons the day in the sense of the dies civilis from night to night) she has performed her duties, and the 173 “Dow have yielded much to her that she might therewith regale him, her true lover; for with r-by she means to say that even the prospect of the gay festival which she can prepare for him moved her thus to meet him. This address of the woman affords us a glimpse into the history of the customs of those times. The Shelamim meals degenerated in the same manner as our Kirmsen.’ Secularization lies doubly near to merrymaking when the law sanctions this, and it can conceal itself behind the mask of piety. Regarding 1N¥, a more exact word for Wpa, vid. at i.28. To seek the countenance of one is equivalent to to seek his person, himself, but yet not without reference to the wished-for look [aspectus| of the person.
Thus she found him, and described to him the enjoyment which awaited him in eating and drinking, then in the pleasures of love.
16 ‘‘ My bed have I spread with cushions, Variegated coverlets, Egyptian linen;
17 I have sprinkled my couch With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come then, we will intoxicate ourselves with love till the morning, And will satisfy ourselves in love.”
The noun ἔην, from &W, = Arab. ’arash, edificare, fabricari, signifies generally the wooden frame; thus not so much the bed within as the erected bed-place (cf. Arab. ’arsh, throne, and ’arysh, arbour). This bedstead she had richly and beautifully cushioned, that it might be soft and agreeable. 125, from 35, signifies to lay on or apply closely, thus either vincire (whence the name of the necklace, Gen. xli. 42) or sternere (different from 757, Job xvii. 13, which acquires the meaning sternere from the root-meaning to raise up from under, sublevare), whence 0%, cushions, pillows, stragule. Bottcher punctuates 8%) incorrectly; the 2 remains aspirated, and the connection of the syllables is looser than in 1279, Ewald, ὃ 88d. The nia6M beginning the second half-verse is in no case an adjective to O°7200, in every case only appos., pro- 1 [Kirmse =anniversary of the dedication of a church, village /éte.]
bably an independent conception; not derived from ADM (cogn. 3371), to hew wood (whence Arab. hatab, fire-wood), according to which Kimchi, and with him the Grace. Venet. (περιξύστοις), understands it of the carefully polished bed-poles or bed-boards, but from 209 = Arab. khateba, to be streaked, of diverse colours (vid. under Ps. ecxliv. 12), whence the Syriac machtabto, a figured (striped, checkered) garment. Hitzig finds the idea of coloured or variegated here unsuitable, but without justice; for the pleasantness of a bed is augmented not only by its softness, but also by the impression which its costliness makes on the eye. The following ΣΝ. FON stands in an appositional relation to mapn, as when one says in Arabic taub-un dildg'-wn, a garment brocade= of brocade. ROS (after the Syr. for PON, as POX) signifies in the Targum the cord (¢.g. Jer. xxxvili. 6), like the Arab. tunub, Syr. (6.0. Isa. liv. 2) tiinob; the root is 8, not in the sense of to bind, to wind (Dietr.), but in the sense of to stretch; the thread or cord is named from the extension in regard to length, and pure is thus thread-work, whether in weaving or spinning.’ The fame of Egyptian manufactures is still expressed in the Spanish aclabtea, fine linen cloth, which is equivalent to the modern Arabic el-kobtije (kibtije); they had there particularly also an intimate acquaintance with the dye stuffs found in the plants and fossils of the country (Klemm’s Culturgeschichte, v. 308-310).
Vers. 17, 18. These verses remind us of expressions in the Canticles. There, at iv. 14, are found the three names for spicery as here, and one sees that Ὁ πὺξ 1) are not to be connected genitively: there are three things, accented as in the title-verse 1. ὃ. The myrrh, 1 (Balsamodendron myrrha), belongs, like the frankincense, to the species of the Amyris, which is an exotic in Palestine not less than with us; the aromatic quality in them does not arise from the flowers or leaves, so that Cant. i. 13 leads us to think of a bunch of myrrh, but from the resin oozing through the bark (Gummi myrrhe or merely myrrha), consisting of bright glossy red or golden-yellow grains more or less transparent. DAN (used by Balaam, Num. xxiv. 6) is the Semitic Old-Indian name of the aloé, agaru or aguru; the aromatic quality is in the wood of the Aguilaria agallocha, especially its root (agallochum or nects with the Arab. verb-root vadh, to bind, wind, clothe, but not without making thereto interrogation marks.
lignum aloes) dried in the earth,—in more modern use and commerce the inspissated juice of its leaves. [22 is κιννάμωμον (like ip, a Semitic word’ that had come to the Greeks through the Pheenicians), the cinnamon, 7.e. the inner rind of the Laurus cinnamomum. The myrrh is native to Arabia; the aloé, as its name denotes, is Indian; the cinnamon in like manner came through Indian travellers from the east coast of Africa and Ceylon (Taprobane). All these three spices are drugs, 1,6. are dry apothecaries’ wares; but we are not on that account to conclude that she perfumed (Hitzig) her bed with spices, viz. burnt in a censer, an operation which, according to Cant. iii. 6, would rather be designated ‘AYP. The verb 33 (only here as Kal) signifies to lift oneself up (vid. under Ps. xlviii. 13), and transitively to raise and swing hither and thither (=4'23); here with a double accusative, to besprinkle anything out of a vessel moved hither and thither. According to this sense, we must think of the three aromas as essences in the state of solution; cf. Ex. xxx. 22-33, Esth. 11. 12. Hitzig’s question, ὁ’ Who would sprinkle bed-sheets with perfumed and thus impure water?” betrays little knowledge of the means by which even at the present day clean linen is made fragrant. The expression 0% 7 7 sounds like 0° 12¥, Cant. v. 1, although there ὩΣ is probably the voc., and not, as here, the accus.; ΠῚ is the Kal of 7, v. 19, and signifies to drink something copiously in full draughts. The verbal form DY for yoy is found besides only in Job xx. 18, xxxix. 13; the HMithpa. signifies to enjoy oneself greatly, perhaps (since the Hithpa. is sometimes used reciprocally, vid. under Gen. ii. 25) with the idea of reciprocity (Targ. ἽΠΟ ἼΠ), We read bo°habim with Chateph-Kametz after Ben- Asher (vid. Kimchi’s Lew.); the punctuation D’INNa is that of Ben-Naphtali. |
The adulteress now deprives the youth of all fear; the circumstances under which her invitation is given are as favourable as possible.
19 ‘* For the man is not at home, He has gone on a long journey.
1 Myrrh has its name 2 from the bitterness of its taste, and Da? appears to be a secondary formation from Mp, whence mp, reed; cf. the names of the
20 He has taken the purse with him; He will not return home till the day of the full moon.”
It is true that the article stands in M89, Arab. alm’ar-fat, i.e. serves to define the word: the man, to whom here κατ᾽ ᾿ξοχήν and alone reference can be made, viz. the husband of the adulteress (ΕἸ.); but on the other side it is characteristic that she does not say ‘YS (as e.g. Gen. xxix. 32), but ignores the relation of love and duty in which she is placed to him, and speaks of him as one standing at a distance from her (Aben-Ezra). Erroneously Vogel reads naa after the Targ. instead of ᾿Π)23, Wesay in Hebr. 122 x, {1 n’est pas chez sot, as we say 17'2 npb, ula pris avec sot (cf. Jer. xxxviii. 10). PIMP Hitzig ee to Ὁ ΨΡΈΜΝΗΙΣ. with the verb, which, after Isa. xvii. 13, xxii. 3, is possible; for the Hebr. pimp (pm), far off, has frequently the meaning from afar, for the measure of length is determined not from the point of departure outward, but from the end, as e.g. Homer, Jl. 11. 456: ἕκαθεν δέ τε φαίνεται αὐγή, from afar the gleam is seen,.6. shines hither from the distance. Similarly we say in French, il vient du coté du nord, he comes from the north, as well as ἐΐ va du coté du nord, he goes northwards. But as we do not say: he has gone on a journey far off, but: on a distant journey, so here pimn is virtually an ms (vid. under Isa. v. 26) equivalent to 171M (Num. ix. 10):
journey which is distant = such as from it ‘he has a long way back. Michaelis has well remarked here: ut timorem ei penitus adimat, velutt per gradus incedit. He has undertaken a journey to a remote point, but yet more: he has taken money with him, has thus business to detain him; and still further: he has even determined the distant time of his return. }O25-W¥ (thus to be written after Ben-Asher, vid. Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 41) is the purse (from 773, to bind together), not one of many, but that which is his own. The terminus precedes 20) to emphasize the lateness; vid. on 8D3 under Ps. Ixxxi. 4. Grec. Venet. τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ καιροῦ, after Kimchi and others, who derive xd3 (D3) from the root D3, to reckon, and regard it as denoting only adefinite time. But the two passages require a special idea; and the Syr. késo, which in 1 Kings xii. 32, 2 Chron. vii. 10, designates the time from the 15th day of the month, shows that the word denotes not, according to the Talmud, the new moon (or the new year’s day), when the moon’s disk begins to cover itself, 1.6. to fill (ADIn*), but the full moon, when it is covered, i.e. filled; so that thus the time of the night- scene here described is not that of the last quarter of the moon (Ewald), in which it rises at midnight, but that of the new moon (Hitzig), when the night is without moonlight. Since the derivation of the word from δὲ 05 (D3), to cover, gives the satisfactory idea of the covering or filling of the moon’s disk, we do not seek after any other; Dietrich fixes on the root-idea of roundness, and Hitzig of vision (NDI =D, ΠΝ; υἱά.,) on the contrary, under Ps. exliii. 9). Theis that of time at which, in which, about which, anything is done; it is more indefinite than 3 would be. He will not return for some fourteen days. The result:—
21 She beguiled him by the fulness of her talking, By the smoothness of her lips she drew him away.
Here is a climax. First she brought him to yield, overcoming the resistance of his mind to the last point (cf. 1 Kings xi. 3); then drove him, or, as we say, hurried him wholly away, viz. from the right path or conduct (cf. Deut. xiii. 6, 11). With 3797 (=17N07) as the chief factum, the past imperf. is interchanged, 210. Regarding npe, see above, p. 56. Here is the rhetoric of sin (Zickler); and perhaps the Πρὸ of 20a has suggested this antiphrastic np? to the author (Hitzig), as pon (the inverted ΠΡΌ, formed like PEw, which is the abstr. of may as that is of pon) and 334A are reciprocally conditioned, for the idea of the slippery (Ps. xxiii. 18) connects itself with pon. What followed:—
22 So he goes after her at once
As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house,
And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fettcrs, 23 As a bird hastens to the net,
Without knowing that his life is at stake—
Till the arrow pierces his liver.
The part. 7210 (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer’s Zorath Emeth, p. 25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool’s going after her. ONNB (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a κεπφωθείς, as the LXX. translates, 1.€.. aS We say, a simpleton who has gone on the lime-twig. He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter-house, unconscious that he is going thither to be slaughtered; the LX X. ungrammatically destroying the attributive clause: ὥσπερ δὲ Bods ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἄγεται. The difficulties in D232: (thus punctuated, after Kimchi, with a double Segol, and not D3y3), as is frequently the case) multiply, and it is not to be reconciled with the traditional text. The ox appears to require another beast as a side-piece; and accordingly the LX X., Syr., and Targ. find in p2y a dog (to which from Sux they also pick out Dy, a stag), Jerome a lamb (et quasi agnus 033), Rashi a venomous serpent (perhaps after éyis?), Lowenstein and Malbim a rattlesnake (spy wn) after D>Y); but all this is mere conjecture. Symmachus’ σκιρτῶν (ἐπὶ δεσμῶν ἄφρων) is without support, and, like the favourite rendering of Schelling, et sicut saliens in vinculum cervus (5's), is unsuitable on account of the unsemitic position of the words. The noun D2Y, plur. ὩΣ, signifies, Isa. iii. 18, an anklet as a female ornament (whence ver. 16 the denom. DY, to make a tinkling of the anklets). In itself the word only means the fetter, compes, from D2Y¥, Arab. ’akas, ’akash, contrahere, constringere (vid. Fleischer under Isa. lix. 5); and that it can also be used of any kind of means of checking free movement, the Arab. ’tkds, as the name of a cord with which the camel is made fast by the head and forefeet, shows. With this signification the interpretation is: et velut pedicd (= D2y33)) amplicatus ad castigationem stulti, he follows her as if (bound) with a fetter to the punishment of the fool, i.e. of himself (Michaelis, Fleischer, and others). Otherwise Luther, who first translated “in a fetter,” but afterwards (supplying δ, not 3): “and as if to fetters, where one corrects fools.” But the ellipsis is harsh, and the parallelism leads us to expect a living being in the place of pay. Now since, according to Gesenius, p>y, fetter, can be equivalent to a fettered one neither at Isa. xvii. 5, xxi. 17, nor Prov. xxiii. 28 (according to which D>y must at least have an active personal signification), we transpose the nouns of the clause and write D2Y ἼΘΙ οὐ OND, he follows her as a fool (Psychol. p. 292) to correction (restraint) with fetters; or if Sux is to be understood not so much physically as morally, and refers to self-destroying conduct (Ps. cvii. 7): as a madman, i.e. a criminal, to chains. The one figure denotes the fate into which he rushes, like a beast devoid of reason, as the loss of life; and the other denotes the fate to which he permits himself to be led by that woman, like a criminal by the officer, as the loss of freedom aud of honour.
Ver. 23. The confusion into which the text has fallen is continued in this verse. For the figure of the deadly arrow connects itself neither with that of the ox which goes to the slaughter-house, nor with that of the madman who is put in chains: the former is not killed by being shot; and with the latter, the object is to render him harmless, not to put him to death. The LXX. therefore converts 54x into Sx, a stag, and connects the shooting with an arrow with this: ἢ ws ἔλαφος τοξεύματι πεπληγὼς εἰς TO ἧπαρ. But we need no encroachment on the text itself, only a correct placing of its members, The three thoughts, ver. 23, reach a right conclusion and issue, if with MBOX MiBY 7702 (lice Merchamahpach) a new departure is begun with a comparison: he follows her with eager desires, like as a bird hastens to the snare (vid. recarding mB, a snare, and Wid, a noose, under Isa. viii. 15). What then follows is a continuation of 22a. The subject is again the youth, whose way is compared to that of an ox going to the slaughter, of a culprit in chains, and of a fool; and he knows not (non novit, as iv. 19, ix. 18, and according to the sense, non curat, iti. 6, v. 6) that it is done at the risk of his life (#522 as 1 Kings
. 48, Num. xvii. 3), that his life is the price with which this kind of love is bought (sin, meut., as not merely Eccles. 11. 1 and the like, but also e.g. Lev. x. 3, Esth. ix 1)—that does not concern him till (WY = we Sy or 13 ty) the arrow breaks or pierces through (NDB as Job. xvi. 13) his liver, 1.6. till he receives the death-wound, from which, if not immediately, yet at length he certainly dies. Elsewhere the part of the body struck with a deadly wound is called the reins or loins (Job, etc.), or the gall-bladder (Job xx. 25); here the liver, which is called 723, Arab. kebid, perhaps as the organ in which sorrowful and painful affections make themselves felt (cf. Auschylus, Agam. 801: δῆγμα λύπης ἐφ᾽ ἧπαρ προσικ- νεῖται), especially the latter, because the passion of sensual love, according to the idea of the ancients, reflected itself in the liver. He who is love-sick has jecur ulcerosum (Horace, Od. i. 25. 15); he is diseased in his liver (Psychol. p. 268). But the arrow is not here the arrow of love which makes love-sick, but the arrow of death, which slays him who is ensnared in sinful love. The befooled youth continues the disreputable relation into which he has entered till it terminates in adultery and in lingering disease upon his body, remorse in his soul, and dishonour to his name, speedily ending in inevitable ruin both spiritually and temporally.
Vers, 24, 25. With “M31, as at v. 7, the author now brings his narrative to a close, adding the exhortation deduced from it: 24 And now, ye children, give ear unto me, And observe the words of my mouth! 25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways, And stray not in her paths.
The verb HOY (whence jést, like jet, iv. 15, with long é from ὁ) the author uses also of departure from a wicked way (iv. 15); but here, where the portraiture of a faithless wife (a 70iD) is presented, the word used in the law of jealousy, Num. v., for the trespass of an vex nvx is specially appropriate. ANY is interchanged with 7yn (cf. Gen. xxi. 14): wander not on her paths, which would be the consequence of straying on them. Theodotion: καὶ μὴ πλανηθῆς ἐν ἀτραποῖς αὐτῆς, with καί, as also Syr., Targ., and Jerome. The Masora reckons this verse to the 25 hid have 5x at the beginning and 5s) at the middle of each clause (vid. Baer in the Luth. Zeitschrift, 1865, p. 587); the text of Norzi has therefore correctly ON), which is found also in good mss. (e.g. the Erfurt, 2 and 3).
Vers. 26, 27. The admonition, having its motive in that which goes before, is now founded on the emphatic finale:
26 For many are the slain whom she hath caused to fall, And many are her slain. 27 A multiplicity of ways to hell is her house, Going down to the chambers of death.
The translation “ for many slain has she laid low” (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther) is also syntactically possible; for 0.21 can be placed before its substantive after the manner of the demonstratives and numerals (e.g. Neh. ix. 28, cf. ns, Cant. iv. 9), and the accentuation which requires two servants (the usual two Munachs) to the Athnach appears indeed thus to construe it. It is otherwise if 0°29 here meant magni (thus e.g. Ralbag, and recently Bertheau), and not multi; but 027 and D's¥ stand elsewhere in connection with each other in the signification many and numerous, Ps. xxxv. 18, Joel ii. 2, Mic. iv. 3. “Her slain” are those slain by her; the part. pass. is connected with the genitive of the actor, e.g. rz, 18; cf. (Arab.) katyl dlmhabbt, of one whom love kills (Fl.). With ver. 27 cf. ii. 18, ix. 18. In 27a, 7N2 is not equivalent to mma3 after viii. 2, also not elliptical and equivalent to AN’ "5; the former is unnecessary, the latter is in no case established by Ps.
xlv. 7, Ezra x. 13, nor by Deut. viii. 15, 2 Kings xxiii. 17 (see, on the other hand, Philippi’s Status Constructus, pp. 87-93). Rightly Hitzig has: her house forms a multiplicity of ways to hell, in so far as adultery leads by a diversity of ways to hell. Similarly the subject and the predicate vary in number, xvi. 25, Ps. cx. 3, Job xxvi. 13, Dan. ix. 23, and frequently. If one is once in her house, he may go in this or in that way, but surely his path is to destruction: it consists of many steps to hell, such as lead down (719, fem. Isa. xxxvil. 34, masc. Isa. xxx. 21) to the extreme depths of death (cf. Job ix. 9, “chambers of the south” =its remotest regions veiling themselves in the invisible); for 179 (Arab. khiddr) is the part of the tent or the house removed farthest back, and the most private (F'l.). These ΓΘ ὙΠ, cf. rN ῬΌΝ, ix. 18, approach to BS conception of 0373, ΔΌΣ is αὐουνειβεὶὶα distinpuidhed from IN’.
The author has now almost exhausted the ethical material; for in this introduction to the Solomonic Book of Proverbs he works it into a memorial for youth, so that it is time to think of concluding the circle by bending back the end to the beginning. For as in the beginning, i. 20 ff., so also here in the end, he introduces Wisdom herself as speaking. There, her own testimony is delivered in contrast to the alluring voice of the deceiver; here, the daughter of Heaven in the highways inviting to come to her, is the contrast to the adulteress lurking in the streets, who is indeed not a personification, but a woman of flesh and blood, but yet at the same time as the incarnate ἀπάτη of worldly lust. He places opposite to her Wisdom, whose person is indeed not so sensibly perceptible, but who is nevertheless as real, coming near to men in a human way, and seeking to win them by her gifts.
1 Doth not Wisdom discourse,
And Understanding cause her voice to be heard? 2 On the top of the high places in the way,
In the midst of the way, she has placed herself.
8 By the side of the gates, at the exit of the city, At the entrance to the doors, she calleth aloud.
As 731] points to that which is matter of fact, so Non calls to a consideration of it (cf. xiv. 22); the question before the reader is doubly justified with reference to i. 20 ff. With ΠΌΞΠ, nanan is interchanged, as e.g. 11. 1-6; such names of wisdom are related to its principal name almost as pinbs, my, and the like, to mm. In describing the scene, the author, as usual, heaps up synonyms which touch one another without coming together.
Ver. 2. By 0°25 Hitzig understands the summit of a mountain, and therefore regards this verse as an interpolation; but the “high places” are to be understood of the high-lying parts of the city. There, on the way which leads up and down, she takes her stand.
ὧν — eC old and poetic for by signifies here “ hard by, close to,”
properly, so that something stands forward over the edge of a thing, or, as it were, passes over its borders (Fl.). The 3, Hitzig, as Bertheau, with LX X., Targ., Jerome, interpret prepositionally as a strengthening of ᾿Ξ (in the midst); but where it once, Ezek. i. 27, occurs in this sense, it is fully written δ ma. Here it is the accus. loci of the substantive; “ house of the ascent” (Syr. béth urchotho) is the place where several ways meet, the uniting point, as 777 ON (Ezek. xxi. 26), the point of departure, exit; the former the crossway, as the latter the separating way. Thus Immanuel: the place of the frequented streets; Meiri: the place of the ramification (more correctly, the concentration) of the ways. 2¥) signifies more than ΠΡ (she raises herself) and ΠΝ (she goes thither); it means that she plants herself there.
Ver. 3. In this verse Bertheau finds, not inappropriately, the designations of place: on this side, on that side, and within the gate. τὸ, at the hand, is equivalent to at the side, as Ps. cxl. 6. Ἔρ, of the town, is the same as nnb», ix. 14, of the house: at the mouth, 1.6. at the entrance of the city, thus where they go out and in. There are several of these ways for leaving and entering a city, and on this account O'NND Ni3 are connected: generally where one goes out and in through one of the gates (doors). §)22, fully represented by the French avenue, the space or way which leads to anything (ΕἸ.). There she raises her voice, which sounds out far and wide; vid. concerning 7357 (Grac. Venet. incorrectly, after Rashi, ἀλαλάξουσι), at i. 20.
Now begins the discourse. The exordium summons general attention to it with the emphasis of its absolute truth:
4 ‘* To you, ye men, is my discourse addressed, And my call is to the children of men!
6 Hear, for I will speak princely things, And the opening of my lips is upright.
7 For my mouth uttereth truth, And a wicked thing is an abomination to my lips.
8 The utterances of my mouth are in rectitude, There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.
9 To the men of understanding they are all to the point, And plain to those who have attained knowledge.”
Hitzig rejects this section, 4-12, as he does several others in viii. and ix., as spurious. But if this preamble, which reminds us of Elihu, is not according to every one’s taste, yet in respect of the circle of conception and thought, as well as of the varying development of certain fundamental thoughts, it is altogether after the manner of the poet. The terminology is one that is strange to us; the translation of it is therefore difficult; that which is given above strives at least not to be so bad as to bring discredit on the poet. The tautology and flatness of ver. 4 disappears when one understands OVS and O78 23 like the Attic ἄνδρες and ἄνθρωποι; vid. under Isa. ii. 9, 1. 3 (where D'™'8, as here and Ps. cxli. 4, is equivalent to Wx 23, Ps. xlix. 3, iv. 3). Wisdom turns herself with her discourses to high and low, to persons of standing and to the proletariat. The verbal clause 4a interchanges with a noun clause 4b, as frequently a preposition with its noun (e.g. ver. 8a) completes the whole predicate of a semistich (ΕἸ.).
Ver. 5. Regarding 278, calliditas, in a good sense, vid. at 1. 4; regarding O'Xn8, those who are easily susceptible of good or bad, according to the influence that is brought to bear upon them, vid. also i. 4; and regarding DDS, the intellectually heavy, dull persons in whom the flesh burdens the mind, vid. at i. 22. 22 is parallel with nonry, for the heart (according to its Semitic etymon, that which remains fast, like a kernel, the central-point) is used for the understanding of which it is the seat (Psychol. p. 249), or heartedness =intelligence (cf. a5~1pn, vi. 32=dvous or ἄλογος). We take nary and 25 as objective, as we have translated: that which is in both, and in which they consist. Thus }'23, which is a favourite word with this author, has both times the simple transitive meaning of the gain of understanding into the nature and worth of both; and we neither need to interpret the second 32°37 in the double transitive meaning, “ to bring to understanding,” nor, with Hitzig, to change it into 1°33" [direct, z.e. applicate].
Ver. 6. That to which Wisdom invites, her discourse makes practicable, for she speaks of Ὁ), Hitzig interprets this word by conspicua, manifest truths, which the Grae, Venet. understands to be ἐναντία, after Kimchi’s interpretation: truths which one makes an aim and object (732) on account of their worth. First, however, says that 13, from 732, Arab. najad, means to be elevated, exalted, and thereby visible (whence also 37, to bring to light, to bring forward); and that by D2, as the plur. of this 1'19, is to be understood princeps in the sense of principalia, or prestantia (LX X. σεμνά; Theodot. ἡγεμονικά; Jerome, de rebus magnis) (cf. νόμος βασιλικός of the law of love, which surpasses the other laws, as kings do their subjects), which is supported by the similar expression, xxi. 20. But that we do not need to interpret a3) as abstr., like pwd, and as the ace. adverb.: in noble ways, because in that case it ought to be ΠΥ) (Berth.), is shown by xxii. 20, and also xvi. 13; ef. on this neuter use of the masc., Ewald, ὃ 172a. “ The opening of my lips (z.e. this, that they open themselves, not: that which they disclose, lay open) is upright” is to be regarded as metonymia antecedentis pro conseg.: that which I announce is...; or also as a poetic attribution, which attributes to a subject that which is produced by it (cf. iii, 170): my discourse bearing itself right, brings to light (F].). xxiii. 16, cf. 31, is parallel both in the words and the subject; 0%, that which is in accordance with fact and with rectitude, uprightness (vid. at 1. 3), is a word common to the introduction (iix.), and to the first appendix to the first series of Solomonic Proverbs (xxii. 17-xxiv. 22), with the Canticles. In Cant. v. 16 also, as here (cf. v. 3, Job vi. 30), the word palate [ Gaumen] is used as the organ of speech.
Ver. 7. Ξ continues the reason (begun in ver. 6) for the Hearken! (cf. i. 15-17, iv. 16 f.); so that this second reason is co-ordinated with the first (F1.). Regarding NN, vid. at il. 3; na, here of the palate (cf. Ps. xxxvii. 30), as in xv. 28 of the ως has not hitherto occurred. It signifies quiet inward meditation, as well as also (but only poetically) discourses going forth from it (vid. at Ps. i. 2). The contrary of truth, 1.6. moral truth, is 2°, wickedness in words and principles,—a segolate, which retains its Seaol also in pausa, with the single exception of Eccles. iii. 16. Vers. 8,9. The 3 of PT¥3 is that of the close connection of a quality with an action or matter, which forms with a substantive adverbia as well as virtual adjectiva, as here: cum rectitudine (conjuncta i. 6. vera) sunt omnia dicta oris met (Fl.); it is the 3 of the distinctive attribute (Hitzig), certainly related to the 3 essentie (iii. 26, according to which Schultens and Bertheau explain), which is connected with the abstract conception (e.g. Ps. xxxiii. 4), but also admits the article designating the gender (vd. at Ps. xxix. 4). The opposite of PI¥ (here in the sense of veracitas, which it means in Arab.) is vipy OMB), dolosum ac perversum. wpy (cf. Gesen. ὃ 84, 9) is that which is violently bent and twisted, ze. estranged from the truth, which is, so to speak, parodied or caricatured. Related to it in meaning, but proceeding from a somewhat different idea, is dnp). NB, used primarily of threads, cords, ropes, and the like, means to twist them, to twine them over and into one another, whence Ong, a line or string made of several intertwisted threads (cf. Js, a wick of a candle or lamp); Viph., to be twisted, specifically luctari, of the twisting of the limbs, and figurativ ae to bend and twist oneself, like the crafty (versutus) liars and deceivers, of words and thoughts which do not directly go forth, but by the crafty twistings of truth and rectitude, opp. 1%, ἢ) (FI.). There is nothing of deception or error in the utterances of wisdom; much rather they are all 0°75), straight out from her (cf. Isa. lvii. 2), going directly out, and without circumlocution directed to the right end for the intelligent, the knowing (cf. Neh. x. 29); and 0%, straight or even, giving no occasion to stumble, removing the danger of erring for those who have obtained knowledge, 1.6. of good and evil, and thus the ability of distinguishing between them (Gesen. § 134, 1),—briefly, for those who know how to estimate them. Her self-commendation is continued in the resumed address:
10 ‘* Receive my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold! 11 For wisdom is better than corals, And all precious jewels do not equa! her. 12 I. Wisdom, inhabit prudence, And the knowledge of right counsels is attainable by me.”
Instead of qDS-NMI influenced by 3p, is §D3" DN} with 39PM to be supplied; besides, with most Codd. and older editions, we are to accentuate “DY INP with the erasure of the Makkeph. “Such negations and prohibitions,” Fleischer remarks, “ are to be understood comparatively: instead of acquiring silver, rather acquire wisdom. Similar is the old Arabic να} J,,WI, the fire, and not the disgrace! Also among the modern Arabic proverbs collected by Burckhardt, many have this form, e.g. No. 34, alhajamat Lalafas wala alhajat alanas, Better to let ἀπολο be cut with the axe than to beg for the favour of another” 100 is to be translated, with Jerome, Kimchi, and others: and knowledge is more precious than fine gold (1023, neut.: auro pretiosius); and in view of xvi. 16, this construction appears to be intended. But Fleischer has quite correctly affirmed that this assertatory clause is unsuitably placed as a parallel clause over against the preceding imperative clause, and, what is yet more important, that then ver. 11 would repeat idem per idem in a tautological manner. We therefore, after the Aramaic and Greek translators, take 12) \D2 together here as well as at ver. 19, inasmuch as we carry forward the inp: et scventiam pre auro lectissimo, which is also according to the accentuation. Equally pregnant is the 5 in 779 of the passage iii, 14, 15, which is here varied.
Ver. 12 follows ver. 11 =ii1. 15 as a justification of this estimating of wisdom above all else in worth. Regarding 38 with Gaja, vid. the rule which the accentuation of this word in the three so-called metrical books follows in Merx’ Archiv, 1868, p. 203 (cf. Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 40). We translate: ego sapientia incolo sollertiam, for the verb j2¥ is construed with the accuastive of the object, ii. 21, x. 80, Ps. xxxvii. 3 (cf. wu, Ps. v. 5), as well as with 3, Gen. xxvi. 2, Ps. Ixix. 87. Wisdom inhabits prudence, has settled down, as it were, and taken up her residence in it, is at home in its whole sphere, and rules it. Bertheau not unsuitably compares οἰκῶν with μόνος ἔχων, 1 Tim. vi. 16. Regarding M0, vid. 1. 4, v. 2. It denotes well-considered, carefully thought out designs, plans, conclusions, and NYT is here the knowledge that is so potent. This intellectual power is nothing beyond wisdom, it is in her possession on every occasion; she strives after it not in vain, her knowledge is defined according to her wish. Wisdom describes herself here personally with regard to that which she bestows on inen who receive her.
Far remote is the idea that 13a is dependent on 8328 (1 acquire) (Lowenstein, Bertheau). With this verse begins a new series of thoughts raising themselves on the basis of the fundamental clause 13a. Wisdom says what she hates, and why she hates it:
13 ‘ The fear of Jahve is to hate evil; Pride and arrogancy, and an evil way And a deceitful mouth, do I hate.”
If the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (ix. 10, i. 7), then wisdom, personally considered, stands before all else that is to be said of her in a relation of homage or reverence toward God corresponding to the fear of God on the part of man; and if, as the premiss 13a shows, the fear of God has as its reverse side the hatred of evil, then there arises what Wisdom says in ‘N82 (I hate) of herself. Instead of the n. actionis ΠΣ (hatred), formed in the same way with NS, which, admitting the article, becomes a substantive, thie author uses, in ales that πὰ might designate the predicate as such (Hitzig), rather the n. actionis NN, ania is indeed also a noun, but is not used substantively; ΠΡΟ as NN2D, Jer. xxix. 10. ΠΝ, Judge. vill. 1,15 equivalent to ney like nes the becoming ale: rhs, the aie able; cf. (Arab.) shanat, Ba malat, well- -being, har at, reading (ΕἸ.). The evil which Ww isdom hates is now particularized as, vi. 16-19, the evil which Jahve hates. The virtue of all virtues is humility; therefore Wisdom hates, above all, selfexaltation in all its forms. The paronomasia i821 183 (pride and haughtiness) expresses the idea in the whole of its contents and compass (cf. Isa. xv. 6, ili. 1, and above ati. 27). 83 (from 483, the nominal form), that which is lofty = pride, stands with ἤν, as Job iv. 10, 733, that which is high =arrogance. There follows the viam mali, representing the sins of walk, i.e. of conduct, and os fallax (vid. at ii. 12), the sins of the mouth. Hitzig rightly rejects the interpunctuation 39, and prefers 39. In consequence of this
Dechi (Tiphcha init.), 9357 ΒΞ) have in Codd. and good editions the servants Asla and Jiluj (vid. Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 11); Aben-Ezra and Moses Kimchi consider the As/a erroneously as disjunctive, and explain *5) by e¢ os =aaxioma meum, but Asla is conjunctive, and has after it the n raphatum.
After Wisdom has said what she hates, and thus what she is not, she now says whiat she is, has, and promises:
14 ‘‘ Mine is counsel and promotion;
I am understanding, mine is strength. 15 By me kings reign,
And rulers govern justly. 16 By me princes rule, and nobles—
All judges of the earth.”
Whoever gives anything must himself possess it; in this sense Wisdom claims for herself counsel, promotion (in the sense of offering and containing that which is essentially and truly good; vid. concerning 04M, ii. 7), and energy (vid. Eccles. vii. 19). But she does not merely possess 73.3; this is much rather her peculiar nature, and is one with her. That ver. 14 is formed after Job xii. 13, 16 (Hitzig) is possible, without there following thence any argument against its genuineness. And if ver. 15 f., and Isa. xxxil. 1, x. 1, stand in intentional reciprocal relation, then the priority is on the side of the author of the Proverbs. The connection gives to tle laconic expression its intended comprehensiveness. It is not meant that Wisdom has the highest places in the state to give, but that she makes men capable of holding and discharging the duties of these.
Ver. 156. Here we are led to think of legislation, but the usage of the language determines for the Po. PPn only the significations of commanding, decreeing, or judging; PT¥ is the object. accus., the opposite of PS PP (decrees of unrighteousness), Isa. x. 1. ᾿Ξ is a poetic word, from j= Arab. razuna, to be heavy, weighty, then to be firm, incapable of being shaken, figuratively of majestic repose, dignity (cf. 3), and 123) in the whole external habitus, in speech and action such as befits one invested with power (F'l.). Ver. 16a. We may not explain the second clause of this verse: et ad ingenua impelluntur quicunque terre imperant, for 3°32 is adj. without such a verbal sense. But besides, "2 2) is not pred., for which it is not adapted, because, with the obscuring of its ethical sienification (from 373, to impel inwardly, viz. to noble conduct, particularly to liberality), it also denotes those who are noble only with reference to birth, and not to disposition (Isa. xxxii. 8). Thus pa") is a fourth svnonym for the highly exalted, and y>s ΘΟ Ὁ is the summary placing together of all kinds of dignity; for ΘΘῸ’ unites in itself references to government, administration of justice, and rule. 53 is used, and not S31—a so-called asyndeton swamativum.
Instead of #8 (LXX.) there is found also the word PI¥ (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Gree. Venet., adopted by Norzi after Codd. and Neapol. 1487). But this word, if not derived from the conclusion of the preceding verse, is not needed by the text, and gives a summary which does not accord with that which is summed up (o25p, DN, py, o23); besides, the Scripture elsewhere calls God Piansels pIy paw (Ps. ix. if Jer. xi. 20). The Masoretic reading’ of most of the editions, which is also found in the Cod. Hillel (bn 15D”), merits the preference. The discourse of Wisdom makes a fresh departure, as at ver. 13: she tells how, to those who love her, she repays this love: 17 ‘* I love them that love me, And they that seek me early find me. 18 Riches and honour are with me, Durable riches and righteousness. 19 Better is my fruit than pure and fine gold, And my revenue (better) than choice silver. 20 In the way of righteousness do I walk, In the midst of the paths of justice.
21 To give an inheritance to them that love me And I fill their treasuries.”
The Chethib M208 (ego hos qui eam amant redamo), Gesenius, Lehrgeb. § 196, 5, regards as a possible synallage (eam = me), but one would rather think that it ought to be read (mm =) 7 'ϑπᾷ, The ancients all have the xeaslinds ‘ans, JON (= IONN, with the change of the ἐδ into é, and the compression of the relied s; cf. wok, NAA, i. 10) is the form of the fwt. Kal, which is inflected 3208, i. 22. Regarding WY (the Gree. Venet. well: ot ὀρθρίζοντές μοι), vid. i. 28, where the same epenthet. fut. form is found.
Ver. 18. In this verse part of iii. 16 is repeated, after which ‘AS is meant of possession (imecum and penes me). Regarding jin, vid. i. 13; instead of the adjective > there, we have here pny. The verb POY signifies promoveri, to move forwards, whence are derived the meanings old (cf. wtas provecta, advanced age), venerable for age, and noble, free (cf. PAY, Isa. xxvill. 9, and Arab. ’atyk, manu-
1 If the Masoretes had read pty ‘py, then would they have added the remark m5 (‘‘it does not further occur”), and inserted the expression in their Register of Expressions, which occurs but once, Masora finalis, p. 62.
2 (One of the most ancient and celebrated Codd. of the Heb. Scriptures, called Hillel from the name of the man who wrote it. Vid. Strack’s Prolegomena, Ρ. 112 It was written about a.p. 600.]
missus), unbound, the bold. Used of clothing, P*ry (Isa. xxiii. 18) expresses the idea of venerable for age. PNY used of possessions and goods, like the Arab. ’dtak, denotes such goods as increase during long possession as an inheritance from father to son, and remain Gens and are not for the first time gained, but sity need to be inherited, opes perennes et firme (Schultens, Gesenius’ Thesaur., Fleischer), although it may be also explained (which is, however, less probable with the form PNY) of the idea of the venerable teal opes superbe (Jerome), splendid opulence. ΠΡῚΝ is here also a good which is distributed, but properly the distributing goodness itself, as the Arab. sadakat, influenced by the later use of the Hebrew ΠΡῚΝ (δικαιοσύνη = - ἐλεημοσύνη), denotes all that which God of His goodness causes to flow to men, or which men bestow upon men (Ε].). Righteousness is partly a recompensative goodness, which rewards, according to the law of requital, like with like; partly communicative, which, according to the law of love without merit, and even in opposition to it, bestows all that is good, and above all, itself; but giving itself to man, it assimilates him to itself (vid. Ps. xxiv. 7), so that he becomes ps, and is regarded as such before God and men, ver. 19.
The fruit and product of wisdom (the former a figure taken from the trees, iii. 18; the latter from the sowing of seed, il. 9) is the gain and profit which it yields. With 79, viii. 10, i. 14, 1B is here named as the place of fine gold, briefly for TY 201, solid gold, gold separated from the place of ore which contains it, or generally separated gold, from 175, violently to separate metals from base mixtures; Targ. PMS 834, gold which has stood the fire-test, obrussa, of eliei crucible, Gidak ὄβρυζον, Pers. ebriz, Arab. ‘brie. In the last clause of this verse, as also in 10), 172) is to be interpreted as pred. to ‘nan, but the balance of the meaning demands as a side-piece to the tn yiind (192) something more than the mere D2. In 20f. the reciprocal love is placed as the answer of love under the point of view of the requiting righteousness. But recompensative and communicative righteousness are here combined, where therefore the subject is the requital of worthy pure love and loving conduct, like with like. Such love requires reciprocal love, not merely cordial love, but that which expresses itself outwardly.
Vers. 20, 21. In this sense, Wisdom says that she acts strictly according to justice and rectitude, and adds (21) wherein this her conduct manifests itself. The Piel ἘΠ expresses firm, constant action; and 3)N2 means that she turns from this line of conduct on no side. oman? is distinguished from nana, as ut possidendam tribuam from possidendam tribuendo; the former denotes the direction of the activity, the latter its nature and manner; both combine if we translate ita ut...’ Regarding the origin of &%, vid. at 11. 7; it denotes the being founded, thus substantia, and appears here, like the word in medizeval Latin and Romanic (Ital. sustanza, Span. substancia), and like οὐσία and ὕπαρξις (τὰ ὑπάρ- χοντα) in classic Greek, to denote possessions and goods. But since this use of the word does not elsewhere occur (therefore Hitzig explains vw τε δ vs, I have it [=presto est]), and here, where Wisdom speaks, v* connects itself in thought with M¥An, it will at least denote real possession (as we also are wont to call not every kind of property, but only landed property, real possession), such possession as has real worth, and that not according to commercial exchange and price, but according to sound judgment, which applies a higher than the common worldly standard of worth. The Pasek between ‘2nx8 and & is designed to separate the two Jods from each other, and has, as a consequence, for ‘378 ὉΠ) the accentuation with Zarcha and Mercha (vid. Accentssystem, vi. § 4; ef. Torath Emeth, p. 17, § 3). The carrying forward of the inf. with the finite, 210, is as i. 27, 11. 2, and quite usual.
Ver. 22. Wisdom takes now a new departure, in establishing her right to be heard, and to be obeyed and loved by men. As the Divine King in Ps. ii. opposes to His adversaries the selftestimony: ‘¢I will speak concerning a decree! Jahve said unto me: Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee;” so Wisdom here unfolds her divine patent of nobility: she originates with God before all creatures, and is the object of God’s love and joy, as she also has the object of her love and joy on God’s earth, and especially among the sons of men:
‘* Jahve brought me forth as the beginning of His way,
As the foremost of His works from of old.” The old translators render 2} (with Kametz by Dechi; vid. under Ps. exviii. 5) partly by verbs of creating (LXX. ἔκτισε, Syr.
1 Biesenthal combines the etymologically obscure 5'n3n with nz: to make to flow into, so that bn denotes inheritance in contradistinction to acquisition; while nbn, in contradistinction to ny, denotes the inheritance rather of many than of the individual. 5.
Targ. N72), partly by verbs of acquiring (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Venet. ἐκτήσατο; Jerome, possedit); Wisdom appears also as created, certainly not without reference to this passage, Sir. i. 4, προτέρα πάντων ἔκτισται σοφία; i. 9, αὐτὸς ἔκτισεν αὐτήν; xxiv. 8, ὁ κτίσας με. Inthe christological controversy this word gained a dogmatic signification, for they proceeded generally on the identity of σοφία ὑποστατική (sapientia substantialis) with the hypostasis of the Son of God. The Arians used the ἔκτισέ pe as a proof of their doctrine of the filius non genitus, sed factus, i.e. of His existence before the world began indeed, but yet not from eternity, but originating in time; while, on the contrary, the orthodox preferred the translation ἐκτήσατο, and understood it of the co-eternal existence of the Son with the Father, and agreed with the ἔκτισε of the LXX. by referring it not to the actual existence, but to the position, place of the Son (Athanasius: Deus me creavit regem or caput operum suorum; Cyrill.: non condidit secundum substantiam, sed constituit me totius universt principium et fundamentum). But (1) Wisdom is not God, but is God’s; she has personal existence in the Logos of the N. T., but is not herself the Logos; she is the world-idea, which, once projected, is objective to God, not as a dead form, but as a living spiritual image; she is the archetype of the world, which, originating from God, stands before God, the world of the idea which forms the medium between the Godhead and the world of actual existence, the communicated spiritual power in the origination and the completion of the world as God designed it to be. This wisdom the poet here personifies; he does not speak of the personal Logos, but the further progress of the revelation points to her actual personification in the Logos. And (2) since to her the poet attributes an existence preceding the creation of the world, he thereby declares her to be eternal, for to be before the world is to be before time. For if he places her at the head of the creatures, as the first of them, so therewith he does not seek to make her a creature of this world having its commencement in time; he connects her origination with the origination of the creature only on this account, because that ἃ priori refers and tends to the latter; the power which was before heaven and earth were, and which operated at the creation of the earth and of the heavens, cannot certainly fall under the category of the creatures around and above us. Therefore (3) the translation with ἔκτισεν has nothing against it, but it is different from the κτίσις of the heavens and the earth, and the poet has intentionally written not 2872, but 2p. Certainly map, Arab. knd, like all the words used of creating, refers to one root-idea: that of forging (vid. under Gen. iv. 22), as 872 does to that of cutting (vid. under Gen. i. 1); but the mark of a commencement in time does not affix itself to map in the same way as it does to 812, which always expresses the divine production of that which has not hitherto existed. 3p comprehends in it the meanings to create, and to create something for oneself, to prepare, parare (e.g. Ps. cxxxix. 13), and to prepare something for oneself, comparare, as κτίζειν and κτᾶσθαι, both from kshi, to build, the former expressed by struere, and the latter by sibi struere. In the 32}, then, there are the ideas, both that God produced wisdom, and that He made Himself to possess it; not certainly, however, as a man makes himself to possess wisdom from without, iv. 7. But the idea of the bringing forth is here the nearest demanded by the connection. For i377 NWN) is not equivalent to 1377 mwa (Syr., Targ., Luther), as Jerome also reads: Jta enim scriptum est: ADONAI CANANI BRESITH DERCHO (Ep. εχ]. ad Cyprian.); but it is, as Job xl. 19 shows, the second accusative of the object (LX X., Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion). But if God made wisdom as the beginning of His way, 1.6. of His creative efficiency (cf. Rev. ili. 14 and Col. 1. 15), the making is not to be thought of as acquiring, but as a bringing forth, revealing this creative efficiency of God, having it in view; and this is also confirmed by the snddin (genita sum; cf. Gen. iv. 1, ‘mp, genut) following. Accordingly, VeyED DI? (foremost of His works) has to be regarded as a parallel second object. accusative. All the old translators interpret DIP as a preposition [before], but the usage of the language before us does not recognise it as such; this would be an Aramaism, for 572, Dan. vii. 7, frequently Ὁ 9 (Syr., Targ.), is so used. But as D1? signifies previous existence in space, and then in time (vid. Orelli, Zeit und EHwigkeit, p. 76), so it may be used of the object in which the previous existence appears, thus (after Sir. i. 4): προτέραν τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ (Hitzig).
‘¢ From everlasting was I set up, From the beginning, from the foundations of the earth.”
That ‘F352 cannot be translated: I was anointed =consecrated, vid. at Ps.ii.6. But the translation also: I was woven = wrought
(Hitzig, Ewald, and previously one of the Greeks, ἐδιάσθην), does not commend itself, for 02) (Ps. exxxix. 15), used of the embryo, lies far from the metaphorical sense in which 9) = Arab. nasa), texere, would here be translated of the origin of a person, and even of such a spiritual being as Wisdom; ‘77103, as the LX X. reads (ἐθεμελιωσέ pe), is not once used of such. Rightly Aquila, κατεστάθην; Symmachus, προκεχείρισμαι; Jerome, ordinata sum. Literally, but unintelligibly, the Gr. Venet. κέχυμαι, according to which (cf. Sir. i. 10) Bottcher: I was poured forth = formed, but himself acknowledging that this figure is not suitable to personification; nor is it at all likely that the author applied the word, used in this sense of idols, to the origin of Wisdom. The fact is, that 19), used as seldom of the anointing or consecration of kings as 71D, passes over, like PS? (P'S), pay (PND, a pillar), and 48) (137), from the meaning of pouring out to that of placing and appointing; the mediating idea appears to be that of the pouring forth of the metal, since 7’p3, Dan. xi. 8, like 12, signifies a molten image. The Jewish interpreters quite correctly remark, in comparing it with the princely name Ὁ) [cf. Ps. Ixxxiii. 12] (although without etymological insight), that a placing in princely dignity is meant. Of the three synonyms of eternitas a parte ante, ὉΡΜῊ points backwards into the infinite distance, YX11D into the beginning of the world, 7182722 not into the times which precede the origin of the earth, but into the oldest times of its gradual arising; this 7) it is impossible to render, in conformity with the Hebr. use of language: it is an extensive plur. of time, Bottcher, ὃ 697. The {© repeated does not mean that the origin and greatness of Wisdom are contemporaneous with the foundation of the world; but that when the world was founded, she was already an actual existence.
This her existence before the world began is now set forth in yet more explicit statements:
24 ‘* When there were as yet no floods was I brought forth,
When as yet there were no fountains which abounded with water; 25 For before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I brought forth, 26 While as yet He had not made land and plains,
And the sum of the dust of the earth.”
The description is poetical, and affords some room for imagination. By nininn are not intended the unrestrained primeval waters, but, as also ill. 20, the inner waters, treasures of the earth; and consequently by Mi2y, not the fountains of the sea on this earth (Ewald, after Job xxxviil. 16), but the springs or places of springs (for PY is γι. loci to PY, a well as an eye of the earth; vid. Gen. xvi. 7), by means of which thejnternal waters of the earth communicate themselves to the earth above (cf. Gen. vii. 11 with xlix. 25). ΝΟ 329 (abounding with water) is a descriptive epitheton to Nix, which, notwithstanding its fem. plur., is construed as mase. (cf. v. 16). The Masora does not distinguish the thrice-occurring ‘133 according to its form as written (Isa. xxiii. 8,9). The form ‘7323 (which, like D'3, would demand Metheq) is to be rejected; it is everywhere to be written 123) (Ewald, ὃ 2142) with Pathach, with Dagesh following; vid. Kimchi, Michlol 616. Kimchi adds the gloss ὉΔῚ DM “DYN, which the Gr. Venet., in accordance with the meaning of 113) elsewhere, renders by πηγαῖς δεδοξασμένων ὑδάτων (as also Béttcher: the most honoured = the most lordly); but Meiri, Immanuel, and others rightly judge that the adjective is here to be understood after Gen. xiii. 2, Job xiv. 21 (but in this latter passage 7233 does not mean “ to be numerous”): loaded = endowed in rich measure.
Ver. 25. Instead of P83, in (yet) non-existence (24), we have liere 090, a subst. which signifies cutting off from that which already exists (vid. at Gen. ii. 5), and then as a particle nondum or antequam, with 3 always antequam, and in ver. 26 Nom, so long not yet (this also originally a substantive from ΠΣ, in the sense of progress). With 20 (were settled) (as Job xxxvili. 6, from 10, to impress into or upon anything, tmprimere, wnjigere) the question is asked: wherein? Not indeed: in the depths of the earth, but as the Caraite Ahron Ὁ. Joseph answers, O° yprp ON, in the bottom of the sea; for out of the waters they rise up, Ps. civ. 8 (cf. at Gen. i. 9).
Ver. 26. nisin} 7S is either, connecting the whole with its part: terra cum campis, or YS gains by this connection the meaning of land covered with buildings, while min the expanse of unoccupied land, or the free field outside the towns and villages (cf. 12, Arab. barrytt) (F1.), vid. Job v. 10, xviii. 17 (where we have translated “in the steppe far and wide”); and regarding thie fundamental idea, vid. above at v.16. Synonymous with yx, as contrast to nisin, 15 22m, which like a3 (produce, wealth) comes from ἜΝ and thus denotes the earth as fruit-bearing (as TD18 properly denotes the humus as the covering of earth). Accordingly, with Ewald, we may understand by nivay vx, “the heaps of the many clods of the fertile arable land lying as if scattered on the plains.” Hitzig also translates: “ the first clods of the earth.’ We do not deny that nny may mean clods of earth, i.e. pieces of earth gathered together, as Job xxviii. 6, 37? MDY, gold ore, i.e. pieces of earth or ore containing gold. But for clods of earth the Heb. language has the nouns 33) and 7573); and if we read together nny, plur. of the collective 15) (dust as a mass), which comes as from a n. wnitatis MBY, and wa, which, among its meanings in poetry as well as in prose, has also that of the sum, i.e. the chief amount or the total amount (cf. the Arab. rds dlmdl, the capital, τὸ κεφάλαιον), then the two words in their mutual relation yield the sense of the sum of the several parts of the dust, as of the atoms of dust (Cocceius; Schultens, summam pulverum orbis habitabilis); and Fleischer rightly remarks that other interpretations, as ab initio pulveris orbis, precipua queque orbis terrarum, caput orbis terrarum (1.6. according to Rashi, the first man; according to Umbreit, man generally), leave the choice of the plur. nn5y unintelligible. Before these creatures originated, Wisdom was, as she herself says, and emphatically repeats, already born; ‘np2in is the passive of the Pilel vin, which means to whirl, to twist oneself, to bring forth with sorrow (Aquila, Theodotion, ὠδινήθην; Grac. Venet. 24a, πέπλασμαι, 25b, ὠδίνημαι), then but poet. generally to beget, to bring forth (xxv. 23, xxvi. 10).
Ver. 27. But not only did her existence precede the laying of the foundation of the world; she was also actively taking part in the creative work:
‘¢ When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
When He measured out a circle for the mirror of the multitude of waters.” Again a sentence clothed with two designations of time. The adv. of place OY is used, chiefly poetically, for Ἰδὲ, eo tempore (Arab. thumm, in contradistinction to thamm, eo loco); but here it has the signification of place, which includes that of time: Wisdom was there when God created the world, and had then already long before that come into existence, like as the servant of Jahve, Isa. xlviii, 16, with just such a 28 OY, says that He is there from the time that the history of nations received a new direction, beginning with Cyrus. [27 signifies to give a firm position or a definite direction. Thus Job xxviii. 27 of Wisdom, whom the Creator
Ixv. 7, of the setting up, restoring throughout the whole world. In the parallel member, 33n, corresponding to D2, appears necessarily to designate the circle or the vault of the heavens (Job xxii. 14), which, according to the idea of the Hebrews, as in Homer, rests as a half-globe on the outermost ends of the disc of the earth surrounded with water, and thus lies on the waters. Vid. Hupfeld under Ps, xxiv. 2. This idea of the ocean girdling the earth is introduced into the O. T’. without its being sanctioned by it. The LXX. (καὶ ὅτε ἀφώριζε τὸν ἑαυτοῦ θρόνον ἐπ᾽ ἀνέμων) appears to understand pin of the waters above; but own never has this meaning, 0° (Job ix. 8, xxxvi. 30) might rather be interpreted of the ocean of the heavens. The passage in accordance with which this before us is to be expounded is Job xxvi. 10: He has set a limit for the surface of the waters, z.e. describing over them a circle setting bounds to their region. So here, with the exchange of the functions of the two words: when He marked out a circle over the surface of the multitude of waters, viz. to appoint a fixed region (MPD, Gen. i. 10) for them, ὁ.6. the seas, fountains, rivers, in which the waters under the heavens spread over the earth. PPM signifies incidere, figere, to prescribe, to measure off, to consign, and directly to mark out, which is done by means of firm impressions of the graver’s tools. But here this verb is without the Dagesh, to distinguish between the infinitive and the substantive ip (his statute