To the upright, 0%, who keep the line of rectitude without turning aside therefrom into devious paths (Ps. exxv. 4 f.), stand opposed (as at ii. 21 f.) the ungodly (faithless), O°, who conceal (from 733, to cover, whence 22 =3D3) malicious thoughts and plans. And the contrast of nian, integrity = unreserved loving submission, is 47D, a word peculiar to the Solomonic Mashal, with its verb 42D (vid. p. 82). Hitzig explains it by the Arab. saraf, to step out, to tread over; and Ewald by lafat, to turn, to turn about (“ treacherous, false step”), both of which are improbable. Schultens compares salaf in the meaning to smear (R. 99, 35, dreddew; cf. regarding such secondary formations with w preceding, Hupfeld on Ps. v. 7), and translates here, lubricitas. But this rendering is scarcely admissible. It has against it lexical tradition (Menahem: rnin, wavering; Parchon: 9)", falsifying; Kimchi: Ny, misrepresentation, according to which the Grec. Venet. σκο- λιότης), as well as the methodical comparison of the words. The Syriac has not this verbal stem, but the Targum has FD in the meaning to distort, to turn the wrong way (σκολιοῦν, στρεβλοῦν), Prov. x. 10, and Esth. vi. 10, where, in the second Targum, ΓΙΘῚΒ D8 means “his mouth was crooked.” With justice, therefore, Gesenius in his Thesaurus has decided in favour of the fundamental idea pervertere, from which also the Peshito and Saadia proceed; for in Ex. xxiii. 8 they translate (Syr.) mhapék (it, the gift of bribery, perverts) and (Arab.) tazyf (= tH, it falsifies), ΕἸ. also, who at xv. 4 remarks, “ 52D, from Feb, to stir up, to turn over, so that the lowermost becomes the uppermost,” gives the preference to this primary idea, in view of the Arab. salaf, invertere terram conserendi causa. It is moreover confirmed by salaf, precedere, which is pervertere modified to prevertere. But how does ‘ig? mean perversio (Theod. ὑποσκελισμός), in the sense of the overthrow prepared for thy neighbour? The parallels demand the sense of a condition peculiar to the word and conduct of the godless (treacherous), xxii. 12 (cf. Ex. xxiii. 8), xix. 3, thus perversitas, perversity; but this as contrary to truth and rectitude (opp. 9h), “ perverseness,” as we have translated it, for we understand by it want of rectitude (dishonesty) and untruthfulness. While the sincerity of the upright conducts them, and, so to say, forms their salvus conductus, which guards them against the danger of erring and of hostile assault, the perverseness of the treacherous destroys them; for the disfiguring of truth avenges itself against them, and they experience the reverse of the proverb,
“das Ehrlich wahrt am ldngsten” (honesty endures the longest). The Chethib oth (DIX) is an error of transcription; the Kert has the proper correction, DIW = Ὁ ΤΊΣ, Jer. v. 6. Regarding TY (whence "I¥), which, from its root-signification of making close and fast, denotes violence and destruction, vid. under Gen. xvii. Three proverbs in praise of ΠΡῚΝ: Ver. 4 Possessions are of no profit in the day of wrath; But righteousness delivereth from death. That which is new here, is only that possessions and goods (vid. regarding fin, p. 63) are destitute of all value in the day of the μέλλουσα ὀργή; for 712 Oi, the day of wrath breaking through the limits (of long-suffering), has the same meaning as in the prophets; and such prophetic words as Isa. x. 3, Zeph. 1. 18, and, almost in the same words, Ezek. vii. 19, are altogether similar to this proverb. The LXX., which translates ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπαγωγῆς, harmonizes in expression with Sir. v. 8, cf. ii. 2, Theodotion translates M8, xxvii. 10, by ἐπαγωγή (providence, fate). Ver. 5 The righteousness of the blameless smootheth his way, And by his own wickedness doth the wicked fall. With the ὉΠ (cf. i. 12), formed after the passive, more than with OM, is connected the idea of the perfected, but more in the negative sense of moral spotlessness than of moral perfection. The rectitude of a man who seeks to keep his conscience and his character pure, maketh smooth (1, as iii. 6, not of the straightness of the line, but of the surface, evenness) his life’s path, so that he can pursue his aim without stumbling and hindrance, and swerving from the direct way; while, on the contrary, the godless comes to ruin by his godlessness—that by which he seeks to forward his interests, and to make a way for himself, becomes his destruction. Ver. 6 The rectitude of the upright saveth them, And in their own covetousness:are the faithless taken. The integrity of those who go straight forward and straight through, without permitting themselves to turn aside on crooked ways, delivers them from the snares which are laid for them, the dangers they encounter; while, on the contrary, the faithless, though they mask their intentions ever so cunningly, are ensnared in their passionate covetousness: the mask is removed, they are convicted, and are caught and lost. Regarding J, abyss, overthrow, also stumbling against anything = covetousness, vid. at x. 3, and under Ps. v.10. ‘The form of the expression 6 follows the scheme, “ in the image of God created He man,” Gen. ix. 6. The subject is to be ΔΒ from the genitive, as is marked by the accentuation, for it gives Mugrash to the M72), as if it were the principal "ΗΝ for mI, Three proverbs regarding destruction and salvation: Ver. 7 When a godless man dies, his hope cometh to nought, And the expectation of those who stand in fulness of strength is destroyed.
We have already remarked in the Introduction that Dox is a favourite word of the Chokma, and the terminological distinction of different classes and properties of men (vid. pp. 40, 42); we read, vi. 12, ΝΣ DIN, and here, as also Job xx. 29, xxvii. 13, YU DIN, cf. xxi. 29, yer νι, but generally only YW is used. A godless man, to whom eaility possessions and pleasure and honour are the ΤΕ good, and to whom no means are too base, in order that he may appease this his threefold passion, rocks himself in unbounded and measureless hopes; but with his death, his hope, t.¢. all that he hoped for, comes to nought. The LXX. translate τελευτήσαντος ἀνδρὸς δικαίου οὐκ ὄλλυται ἐλπίς, which is the converse of that which is here said, 7a: the hope of the righteous expects its fulfilment beyond the grave. The LXX. further translate, τὸ δὲ καύχημα (ΠΣΠΓᾺ) τῶν ἀσεβῶν ὄλλυται; but the distich in the Hebr. text is not an antithetic one, and whether pis may signify the wicked (thus also the Syr., Targ., Venet., and Luther), if we regard it as a brachyology for O58 ‘WIN, or as the plur. of an adj. fix, after the form 2 (Elazar b. Jacob in Kimchi), or wickedness (Zockler, with Hitzig, “ the wicked expectation’’), is very questionable. Yet more improbable is Malbim’s (with Rashi’s) rendering of this ox, after Gen. xlix. 3, Ps. Ixxviii. 51, and the Targ. on Job xviii. 12, of the children of the deceased; children gignuntur ex robore virili, but are not themselves the robur virile. But while px is nowhcre the plur. of [8 in its ethical signification, it certainly means in Ps. Ixxviii. 51, as the plur. of fix, manly strength, and in Isa. xl. 26, 29 the fulaiess of strength generally, and once, in Hos. ix. 4, as plur. of [8 in its physical signification, derived from its root-meaning anhelitus (Gen. xxxv. 18, cf. Hab. iii. 7), deep sorrow (a heightening of the px, Deut. xxvi. 14), This latter signification has also been adopted: Jerome, expectatio solicitorum; Bertheau, ‘the expectation of the sorrowing;” Ewald, “continuance of sorrow;” but the meaning of this in this connection is so obscure, that one must question the translators what its import is. Therefore we adhere to the other rendering, “fulness of strength,” and interpret D's as the opposite of DIN PR, Isa. x]. 29, for it signifies, per metonymiam abstracti pro concr., those who are full of strength; and we gain the meaning that there is a sudden end to the expectation of those who are in full strength, and build their prospects thereon. The two synonymous lines complete themselves, in so far as D'N gains by yw DIN the associated idea of self-confidence, and the second strengthens the thought of the first by the transition of the expression from the fut. to the preterite (F'l.). nomm has, for the most part in recent impressions, the Mugrash; the correct accentuation, according to codices and old impressions, is D'S ndmin (vid. Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 10, § 4).
Ver. 8 The righteous is delivered from trouble, And the godless comes in his stead.
The succession of the tenses gives the same meaning as when, followed by the historical tense, the expression of the principal fact, is the perfect. The statement here made clothes itself after the manner of a parable in the form of history. It is true there are not wanting experiences of an opposite kind (from that here stated), because divine justice manifests itself in this world only as a prelude, but not perfectly and finally; but the poet considers this, that as a rule destruction falls upon the godless, which the righteous with the help of God escapes; and this he realizes as a moral motive. In itself 'M may also have only the meaning of the exchange of places, but the LXX. translate ἀντ᾽ αὐτοῦ, and thus in the sense of representation the proverb appears to be understood in connection with xxi. 18 (cf. the prophetico-historical application, Isa. xliii, 4). The idea of atonement has, however, no application here, for the essence of atonement consists in the offering up of an innocent one in the room of the guilty, and its force lies in the offering up of self; the meaning is only, that if the divinely-ordained linking together of cause and effect im the realms of nature and of history brings with it evil, this brings to the godless destruction, while it opens the way of deliverance for the righteous, so that the godless becomes for the righteous the
ἼΒΞ, or, as we might say in a figure of similar import, the lightning conductor,
But by knowledge the righteous are delivered from it.
The LXX. translate, ἐν στόματι ἀσεβῶν παγὶς (nv?) πολίταις, αἴσθησις δὲ δικαίοις εὔοδος (sndy*). There is no reason for changing (with Hitzig and Ewald) the text, which in the form in which it is here translated was before all other translators (Aq., Symmachus, Theodgation, Syr., Targ., Jerome). The accentuation, which separates the two instrumental statements by greater disjunctives from that which follows, is correct. The “three” Greek versions [viz. of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus] translate 420 by ὑποκριτής, which it means in the modern idiom; but in the ancient Hebr. it signifies, him who is resolved upon evil, as in Arab. hanyf, him who is resolved upon that which is right: he who turns aside to evil enters on a path far removed from that which is right. In mn one is reminded (without any etymological reason) of NNY (pit), and so in wom of oninnti (Ps. evii. 20) or a similar word; but N72 contains the reference, in this connection not easy to be mistaken, to the hostile purposes of the wicked masked by the words of the mouth, which are seen through by the righteous by virtue of knowledge which makes them acquainted with men. This penetrating look is their means of deliverance.
Three proverbs follow relating to the nature of city and national life, and between them two against mockery and backbiting:
Ver. 10 In the prosperity of the righteous the city rejoiceth; And if the wicked come to ruin, there is jubilation.
The 3 of 3:3 denotes the ground but not the object, as elsewhere, but the cause of the rejoicing, like the 2, 100, and in the similar proverb, xxix. 2, cf. xxviii. 12. If it goes well with the righteous, the city has cause for joy, because it is for the advantage of the community; and if the wicked (godless) come to an end, then there is jubilation (substantival clause for 0), for although they are honoured in their lifetime, yet men breathe freer when the city is delivered from the tyranny and oppression which they exercised, and from the evil example which they gave. Such proverbs, in which the city (civitas) represents the state, the πόλις the πολιτεία, may, as Ewald thinks, be of earlier date than the days of an Asa or Jehoshaphat; for ‘from the days of Moses and Joshua to the days of David and Solomon, Israel was a great nation, divided indeed into many branches and sections, but bound together by covenant, whose life did not at all revolve around one great city alone.” We value such critical judgments according to great historical points of view, but confess not to understand why ΠῚ must just be the chief city and may not be any city, and how on the whole a language which had not as yet framed the conception of the state (post-bibl. 72°), when it would describe the community individually and as a whole, could speak otherwise than of city and people. Ver. 11 By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, But by the mouth of the godless it is broken down.
This verse is related, in the way of confirming it, to ver. 10. The LXX., which omits ver. 4, here omits 10b and 11a, and combines 10a and 116 into one proverb (vid. Lagarde). The meaning is clear: “by the benedictions and pious prayers of the upright a city rises always to a higher eminence and prosperity; while, on the contrary, the deceitful, arrogant, blasphemous talk of the godless brings ruin to it” (F1.). The nearest contrast to “ by the blessing of the upright ” would be “by the cursing of the wicked,” but not in the sense of the poet, who means to say that the city raises itself by the blessing of the upright, and on the contrary, when godless men are exalted, then by their words (whose blessing is no better than their curse) it comes to ruin. MI? (=P) occurs only four times in Proverbs, and in Job xxix. 7.
Ver. 12. There now follow two proverbs which refer to the intercourse of private life.
He who mocketh his neighbour is devoid of understanding; But the intelligent man remaineth silent.
xiv. 21 is a proverb similarly beginning with wy ta; xii. 13 is another beginning with 7127 ta. From this one sees that ona (cf. 2 Ara, Isa. xxxvii. 22) does not mean a speaking contemptuously in one’s presence; as also from vi. 30, that contemptuous treatment, which expresses itself not in mockery but in insult, is thus named; so that we do not possess a German [nor an English] expression which completely covers it. Whoever in a derisive or insulting manner, whether it be publicly or privately, degrades his neighbour, is unwise (37-0 as pred., like vi. 32); an intelligent man, on the contrary, keeps silent, keeps his judgment to himself, abstains from arrogant criticisms, for he knows that he is not infallible, that he is not acquainted with the heart, and he possesses too much self-knowledge to raise himself above his neighbour as a judge, and thinks that contemptuous rejection, unamiable, reckless condemnation, does no good, but on the contrary does evil on all sides. Ver. 13 He who goeth about tattling revealeth secrets; But he who is of a faithful spirit concealeth a matter. The tattler is called 7 (intensive form of 555), from his going hither and thither. 527 WIX, Ezek. xxii. 9, are men given to tattling, backbiters; 27 pin (cf. Lev. xix. 16), one of the tattlers or backbiters goes, a divulger of the matter, a tell-tale. It is of such an one that the proverb speaks, that he reveals the secret (7ip, properly the being close together for the purpose of private intercourse, then that intercourse itself, vid. at Ps. xxv. 14); one has thus to be on his guard against confiding in him. On the contrary, a MIYON, firmus (fidus) spiritu, properly one who is established, or reflexively one who proves himself firm and true (vid. at Gen. xv. 6), conceals a matter, keeps it back from the knowledge and power of another. Zockler rightly concludes, in opposition to Hitzig, from the parallelism that the S55 317 is subject; the arrangement going before also shows that this is the “ groundword ” (Ewald); in xx. 19a the relation is reversed: the revealer of secrets is rightly named (cf. Sir. xxvii. 16, ὁ ἀποκαλύπτων μυστήρια, K.T.A.). Ver. 14 Where there is no direction a people fall; But where there is no want of counsellors there is safety.
Regarding niann, vid. at i. 5. There it means rules of selfgovernment; here, rules for the government of the people, or, since the pluralet. denotes a multiplicity in unity, circumspect κυβέρνησις. With 140, xxiv. 6 (where direction in war, as here in peace, is spoken of, and the meaning of the word specializes itself accordingly) agrees; cf. also xv. 225. Hitzig criticises the proverb, remarking, “ we who have the longest resorted to many counsellors, as a consequence of the superabundance have learned to say, ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth,’ and, ‘He who asks long, errs.’ ” But the truth of the clause 140 is in modern times more fully illustrated in the region of ecclesiastical and political affairs; and in general it is found to be true that it is better with a people when they are governed according to the laws and conclusions which have resulted from the careful deliberation of many competent and authorized men, than when their fate is entrusted unconditionally to one or to a few. The proverb, it must be acknowledged, refers not to counsellors such as in Isa. iii. 3, but as in Isa. 1. 26.
Ver. 15. There follow now two proverbs regarding kindness which brings injury and which brings honour:
It fares ill, nothing but ill, with one who is surety for another; But he who hateth suretyship remaineth in quietness.
More closely to the original: It goes ill with him; for the proverb is composed as if the writer had before his eyes a definite person, whom one assails when he for whom he became security has not kept within the limits of the performance that was due. Regarding 31Y with the accus. of the person: to represent one as a surety for him, and Ἢ as denoting the other (the stranger), vid. at vi. 1. The meaning of Yi! YD is seen from xx. 16a. Yin is, like xiii. 20, the fut. Niph. of YY, or of YO = yy, after the forms Din, ai (Olsh. ὃ 2652). The ‘added ΡῈ has, likes my, Hab. iii. 9, the same function as the inf. absol. (intensivus); but as the 7 form ¥1 could only be inf. constr. after the form JY, Jer. v. 26, the infinitive absol. must be Yi: thus ΜῈ is an accus., or what is the same, an adverbial adj.: he is badly treated (maltreated) in a bad way, for one holds him to his words and, when he cannot or will not accomplish that which is due in the room of him for whom he is bail, arrests him. He, on the contrary, who hates ΡΠ has good rest. The persons of such as become surety by striking the hands cannot be meant, but perhaps people thus becoming surety by a hand-stroke,—such sureties, and thus such suretyship, he cannot suffer; Opin approaches an abstract [“ striking hands,” instead of “those who strike hands”] in connection with this 82%, expressing only a strong impossibility, as pian, Zech. 11. 7, 14, means uniting together in the sense of combination.
household, makes the family unloved, and lowers it. But the commencing line, by which 160 is raised to an independent distich, is so much the more imperfect: πλούτου ὀκνηροὶ ἐνδεεῖς yivovtar; for that the negligent (idle) bring it not to riches, is, as they are wont in Swabia to call such truisms, a Binsenwahrheit. But it is important that the translation of 16, of δὲ ἀνδρεῖοι ἐρείδονται πλούτῳ (the Syr. has “knowledge” for riches), presupposes the phrase O'S) (cf. x. 4, LX X.), and along with it this, that ‘son “wy is so rendered as if the words were Wy2 13195’, 1s to be regarded as unhistorical. If we now take the one proverb as it is found in the Hebr. text, then the repetition of the an in the two lines excites a prejudice in favour of it. The meaning of this otherwise difficult yon is missed by Lowenstein and Zockler: a gracious woman retaineth honour (Symm. ἀνθέξεται δόξης); for (1) 5n Jon would better agree with this predicate, and (2) it is evident from xxix. 23 that 123 79n is not to be understood in the sense of firmiter tenere, but in the inchoative sense of consequi honorem, whence also the ἐγείρει ἀνδρί of the LX X. ΤῈ is true that xxxi. 30 states that “ grace (Π) is nothing,” and that all depends on the fear of God; but here the poet thinks on “ grace” along with the fear of God, or he thinks on them as not separated from each other; and since it is doubly true, which is moreover besides this true, that a wife of gracious outward appearance and demeanour obtains honour, her company is sought, she finds her way into the best society, they praise her attractive, pleasant appearance, and that the husband also of such a wife participates to some extent in this honour. Experience also confirms it, that the DY, strong men, obtain riches (cf. Isa. xlix 25); and this statement regarding the o's y fits better as a contrast to 16a, as a like statement regarding the b'ynn, diligent, for the 7 (from 71, to place in terror, Ps. x. 18), whose power consists in terrorism or violence, is the most direct contrast of a wife, this σκεῦος ἀσθενέστερον, who by heart-winning attraction makes yet better conquests: she thereby obtains a higher good, viz. honour, while the former gains only riches, for ‘a name” (viz. a good one) “is better than great riches,” xxii. 1. If we read pin, this thoughtful contrast is lost. Three proverbs regarding benevolence: Ver. 17 The benevolent man doeth good to his own soul, And the violent man brings trouble on his own flesh.
Many interpreters reverse the relation of subject and predicate
(Targ. only in 17), after the phrase 312m, for which the Syr. has only 33101): gut sibi ipst benefacit, is quidem erga alios quoque Lenignus presumitur, quum caritas ordinata a se ipsa incipiat; quit vero carnem suam male habet, est crudelis erga alios (Michaelis). But this cannot be established; for certainly it occurs that whoever does good to himself does good also to others, and that whoever is hard against himself also judyves and treats others harshly; but in by far the greatest number of cases the fact is this, that he who does not deny anything to himself is in relation to others an egoist, and this is not a “ benevolent man;” and, on the contrary, that he who denies to himself lawful enjoyments is in relation to otlrers capable of self-denial and self-sacrifice, and thus is the contrast of a ‘violent man.” The word of Sirach, xiv. 5, ὁ πονηρὸς ἑαυτῷ τίνα ἀγαθὸς ἔσται, to which Bertheau appeals, alludes to the niggard, and it is true indeed that this new 129, but not every Dy mxv, isa niggard. Thus the “benevolent man” and tlie “ violent man” will be the two subject conceptions, and as it is said of the benevolent (709 as e.g. Hos. vi. 6, of a more restricted sense, as Isa. lvii. 1) that he does good (018, viz. 330, xxxi. 12), so of the violent (unmerciful) (ΞΕ as xii. 20, Jer. vi. 23, 1. 42) that he brings evil on his own flesh (LXX. αὐτοῦ σῶμα); for HRY as a parallel word to iB) (cf. p. 195) signifies not blood-relations (Symm., Jerome, Luther, and Grotius), but it has here, as at Mice. iii. 2, its nearest signification, from which it then comes to signify those who are of our flesh and blood. But for that reason the meaning of the poet cannot be that given by Elster: “he who exercises benevolence toward others creates within himself a determination which penetrates his whole being with generous and fruitful warmth, as on the other hand the feeling of hatred deprives the heart of him who cherishes it of the true fountain of life.” If this were meant, then soul and spirit, not soul and flesh, would stand in parallelism. The weal and woe refers thus to the divine retribution which requites the conduct of a man toward his neighbours, according to its character, with reward or punishment (Hitzig, Zockler).
Ver. 18. Man consists of body and soul. In regard to both, benevolence brings its reward, and hatred its punishment.
The godless acquires deceptive gain; But he that soweth righteousness, a true reward.
Jerome makes 185 an independent clause, for he translates it as if the word were written yrin; the Syr. and Targ. also, as if 2 IAN (his fidelity i is his reward). But according to the text as it stands, nvy extends its regimen to both parts of the verse; to make $e here equivalent to, to work out, to acquire, περιποιεῖσθαι, as Gen. xxxi. 1, Jer. xvii. 11, etc. The labour of the godless has selfishness as its motive, and what he acquires by his labour is therefore “delusive gain,”’—it is no blessing, it profits him not (x. 2), and it brings him no advantage (x. 16). He, on the contrary, acquires truth, 1.6. a truly profitable and enduring reward, who sows right-doing, or better: good-doing, by which we also, as the biblical moral in ΠΡῚΝ, think principally of well-doing, unselfish activity and self-sacrificing love. Hos, x. 12 speaks of sowing which has only ΠΡῚΝ as the norm; and how ΠΡῚΝ is understood is seen from the parallel use of 1Dn [piety]. The “true reward” is just the harvest by which the sowing of the good seed of noble benevolent actions is rewarded. Ver. 19 Genuine righteousness reaches to life, And he who pursues evil does it to his death.
The LXX. translate υἱὸς δίκαιος, and the Syrian follows pul unwarrantable guid pro quo; the Bible uses the phrase ΠΡῚΝ and the like, but not ΠΡῚΝ 2. The Grec. Venet. τὸ πι οὕτω) deprives the distich of its supposed independence. The Targ. renders {2 with the following ἡ as correlates, sie... uti; but 15 in comparative proverbs stands naturally in the second, and not in the first place (vid. p. 10). Without doubt 19 is here a noun. It appears to have a personal sense, according to the parallel 772, on which account Elster explains it: he who is firm, stedfast in righteousness, and Zockler: he who holds fast to righteousness; but 15 cannot mean “ holding fast,” nor does 2131;—“fast” does not at all agree with the meaning of the word, it means upright, and in the ethical sense genuine; thus Ewald better: “he who is of genuine righteousness,” but “ genuine in (of) righteousness” is a tautological connection of ideas. Therefore we must regard j3 as a substantival neuter, but neither the rectum of Cocceius nor the jirmum of Schultens furnishes a naturally expressed suitable thought. Or is 13 a substantive in the sense of 2 Kings vii. 31? The word denotes the pedestal, the pillar, the standing-place; but what can the basis refer to here (Kuchel)? Rather read “aim” (Oetinger) or “direction” (Lowenstein); but j2 does not take its meaning from the Hiph. 33. One might almost assume that the Chokma-language makes }3, faliter, a substantive, and has begun to use it in the sense of qualitas (like the post-bibl. ΤῊΝ }2), so that it is to be explained: the quality of righteousness tendeth to life. But must we lose ourselves in conjectures or in modifications of the text (Hitzig, 535, as a banner), in order to gain a meaning from the word, which already has a meaning? We say 13 733, to speak right (Num. xxvii. 7), and 13 nivy, to do right (Kccles. viii. 10); in both cases {2 means standing = consisting, stedfast, right, recte. The contrast is 1-ND, 2 Kings vii. 9, which is also once used as a substantive, Isa. xvi. 6: the unrighteousness of his words. So here }3 is used as a substantive connected in the genitive, but not so that it denotes the right holding, retaining of righteousness, but its right quality,—nox mpty buy, as Rashi explains it, 1.6.) as we understand it: genuineness, or genuine showing of righteousness, which is not mere appearance without reality. That 0°23 denotes such people as seek to appear not otherwise than what they truly are, is in favour of this interpretation, Such genuine righteousness as follows the impulse of the heart, and out of the fulness of the heart does good, has life as its result (xix. 23), an inwardly happy and externally a prosperous life; on the other hand, he who wilfully pursues evil, and finds in it satisfaction, brings death upon himself: he does it to his death, or if we make (which is also possible) 77 the subject: it tends to his death. Thus in other words: Love is life; hatred destroys life.
The following proverbs are especially directed, as connected with this 15, against the contradiction of the external appearance and of the masked internal nature.
And they who are of honest walk are His delight. We read, ii. 15, viii. 8, ΡΨ (the form of the transgressions); but here, where the “crookedness” is transferred to the heart, we require another word, which renders the idea of falseness, the contrary of directness, lying in it, without any mixture of the fundamental conception flecuosus or tortuosus. 11 ΘΠ are not only those whose walk is externally without offence and blameless, but, in conformity with the contrast, those whose manner of conduct proceeds from a disposition that is pure, free from deception and concealment. Jerome, et voluntas ejus in us gui simpliciter ambulant. But the word is not "NI; they [the upright] are themselves His py (xi. 1) [delight]: He regards them, and only them, with satisfaction. Ver. 21 Assutedly [the hand to it] the wicked remaineth not unpunished, But the seed of the righteous is delivered.
The LXX. render here, as xvi. 5, where the 19 T repeats itself, χειρὶ χεῖρας ἐμβαλὼν ἀδίκως, which is not to be understood, as Evagrius supposes, of one that can be bribed, but only of a violent person; the Syr. and Targ. have the same reference; but the subject is certainly 3, and a governing word, as 8¥ (2 Sam. xx. 21), is wanting, to say nothing of the fact that the phrase “one hand against the other” would require the words to be 11 Ἢ". Jerome and the Grec. Venet., without our being able, however, to see their meaning. The translation of the other Greek versions is not given. The Jewish interpreters offer nothing that is worthy, as 6.6. Immanuel and Meiri explain it by “immediately,” which in the modern Hebr. would require 7%, and besides is not here suitable. The Midrash connects with 21a the earnest warning that he who sins with the one hand and with the other does good, is nevertheless not free from punishment. Schultens has an explanation to give to the words which is worthy of examination: hand to hand, ἐ.6. after the manner of an inheritance per posteros (ix. xx. 5), resting his opinion on this, that Arab. yad (cf. 1, Isa. lvi. 5) is used among other significations in that of authorizing an inheritance. Gesenius follows him, but only urging the idea of the sequence of time (cf. Pers. dest bedest, hand to hand = continuing after one another), and interprets T'2 7° as Fleischer does: ab etute in etatem non (i.e. nullo unquam tempore futuro) erit impunis scelestus, sed postert justorum salvi erunt. According to Bottcher, “hand to hand” is equivalent to from one hand to another, and this corresponds to the thought expressed in Plutarch’s de sera numinis vindicta: if not immediately, yet at last. We may refer in vindication of this to the fact that, as the Arab. lexicographers say, yad, used of the course of time, means the extension (madd) of time, and then a period of time. But for the idea expressed by nunquam, or neutiquam, or tandem eliquando, the language supplied to the poet a multitude of forms, and we do not see why he should have selected just this expression with its primary meaning alternatim not properly agreeing with the connection. Therefore we prefer with Ewald to regard 15 asa formula of confirmation derived from the common speech of the people: hand to hand (° as in po, Job xvii. 3), 1.6. the hand for it [1 pledge it, guarantee it] (Bertheau, Hitzig, Elster, Zockler). But if 21a assures by the pledge of the hand, and as it were lays a wager to it, that the wicked shall not go unpunished, then the genitive in ΡΝ YI is not that of dependence by origin, but, as Isa. xv. 23, 1. 4, the genitive of apposition, for prt here, as 75, Ps. xxiv. 6, exil. 2, denotes a oneness of like origin and of like kind, but with a preponderance of the latter. D213 is the 3d pret., which by the preceding fut. retains the reference to the future: the merited punishment comes on the wicked, but the generation of the righteous escapes the judgment. J) has the 9 dagheshed (Michlol 630) according to the rule of the pm, according to which the consonant first sounded after a word terminating in an accented a or 6 is doubled, which is here, as at xv. 1, done with the >. Ver. 22 A golden ring in a swine’s snout,— A fair woman and without delicacy. This is the first instance of an emblematical proverb in which the first and second lines are related to each other as figure and its import, vid. p. 9. The LXX. translates rhythmically, but by its ὥσπερ... οὕτως it destroys the character of this picture-book proverbial form. The nose-ring, 51, generally attached to the right nostril and hanging down over the mouth (vid. Lane’s Manners, etc.) is a female ornament that has been in use since the time of the patriarchs (Gen. xxiv. 47). If one supposes such a ring ina swine’s snout, then in such a thing he has the emblem of a wife in whom beauty and the want of culture are placed together in direct contrast. OY is taste carried over into the intellectual region, the capability of forming a judgment, Job xii. 20, and particularly the capability of discovering that which is right and adapted to the end in view, 1 Sam. xxv. 33 (of Abigail), here in accordance with the figure of a beast with which the ideas of uncleanness, shamelessness, and rudeness are associated, a mind for the noble, the fine, the fitting, that which in the higher and at the same time intellectual and ethical sense we call tact (fine feeling); nD (alienata) denotes the want of this capacity, not without the accompanying idea of self-guilt. Ver. 23 The desire of the righteous is nothing but good, The expectation of the godless is presumption.
This 1s usually explained with Fleischer: If the righteous wish for anything, their wish reaches to no other than a fortunate issue; but if the godless hope for anything, then there is to them in the end as their portion, not the good they hoped for, but wrath (x. 28, cf. x1. 4). However, that 172) is at once to be understood thus, as in May oy, and that the phrase is to be rendered: the hope of the godless is God’s wrath, is doubtful. But may denotes also want of moderation, and particularly in the form of presumption, xxi. 24, Isa. xvi. 6; and thus we gain the thought that the desire of the righteous is directed only to that which is good, and thus to an object that is attainable because well-pleasing to God, while on the contrary the hope of the godless consists only in the suggestions of their presumption, and thus is vain self-deceit. The punctuation O'P"¥ NINN is contrary to rule; correct texts have Msn Dp, for Dechi stands before Athnach only if the Athnach- word has two syllables (Zorath Emeth, p. 43; Accentssystem, xviii. § 4). Three proverbs regarding giving eh is not loss but gain. Ver. 24 There is one who giveth bounteously, and he increaseth still more; And (there is) one who withholdeth what is due, only to his loss.
The first of the proverbs with & (there is), which are peculiar to the first collection (vid. p. 82). The meaning is, that the possessions of the liberal giver do not decrease but increase, and that, on the contrary, the possessions of the niggardly do not increase but decrease. 35 is not to be understood after Ps. cxii. 9. Instead of iy pin the three Erfurt codd have 403) (with retrogression of the tone?), which Hitzig approves of; but the iraditional phrase which refers (et gui augetur insuper) D1) not to the possession of him who scattereth, but to himself, is finer in the expression. In the characteristic of the other, 2 is commonly interpreted comparativ ely: plus equo (Cocceius) or justo (Schelling). But 19 after 1¥M is to be regarded as governed by it, and \ denotes not competence, riches, as Arab. yusr (Bertheau, Zéckler), also not uprightness — beneficence (Midrash, nptyn 12), but duty, uprightness, as Job xxxiii. 23, where it denotes that which is advantageous to man, as here that which befits him: he who holds back, namely himself, from that which is due to himself, and thus should permit to himself, such an one profits nothing at all by this ἀφειδία (175, Col. ii. 23), but it tends only to loss to him, only to the lessening of that which he possesses. We shall meet with this (nian?) “ion? J& xiv. 23, and frequently again—it is a common Mashal formula (cf. καὶ τόσῳ μᾶλλον ὑστερεῖται͵ Sir. xi. 11). The cause of the strange phenomenon that the liberal gains and the niggardly loses is not here expressed, but the following proverb gives the explanation of it: Ver. 25 A liberal soul [soul of blessing] is made fat, And he that watereth others is also watered. A synonymous distich (vid. p. 7). A soul of blessing is one from whom blessings go out to others, who is even a blessing to all with whom he comes into fellowship; 372 denotes also particular ly the gifts of love, 1 Sam. xxv. 27, art denotes, if the Arab. is right, which derives it from the Serade teense idea “to spread out:” to cause to increase and prosper by means of word and deed. The blessing which goes out from such a soul comes back again to itself: }WIN (as xill. 4, xxvill. 25), it is made fat, gains thereby sap and strength i in ilviewss the Pual refers to the oriingh ὦ of God; xxii. 9 is kindred in meaning to this anima benefica pinguefiet. In 255 Si is the Aramaic form of writing, but without the Aramaic vocalization (cf. i. 10 Sah, Isa. xxi. 12 84). Perhaps the δὲ makes it noticeable that here a different word from ΠῚ", morning rain, is used; however, Symm. translates πρωϊνός, and the Grac. Venet. (Kimchi following it) ὑετός. As a rule, we do not derive 81° from 1, of which it would be the Hophal (=, as yin, Lev. iv. 23, =) (Ewald, ὃ 131 f.); for the idea conspergitur, which the Ho. of the Hiph. Τὴν, Hos. vi. 3, expresses, is, as correlate to 7172, as a parallel word to WIN, one not of equal force. Jerome was guided by correct feeling, ‘ape he translates: δέ gut inebriat ipse quogue inebriabitur. Thee stone wont is certainly 1, whether it is with Hitzig to be punctuated δὲν) τὸ ΠΥ, or with Fleischer we are to regard Ni as derived per metathesin from m7, as for Arab. drdy (to cause to see) is used* the vulgar Arab. drway (in the Syr. Arab.) and dwray (in the Egypt. Arab.). We prefer the latter, for the passing of ΠῚ) (from ΠῚ) into 7 is according to rule, vid. at xxiil. 21. Ver. 26 Whoso withholdeth corn, him the people curse; But blessing is on the head of him that selleth it.
This proverb is directed against the corn-usurer, whose covetousness and deceitful conduct is described Amos viii. 4-8. But whilst it is there said that they cannot wait till the burdensome
1 Hitzig’s comparison of rawad, finem respicere, as transposed from waray is incorrect; the former verb, which signifies to consider, thus appears to be original.
interruption of their usurious conduct on account of the sacred days come to an end, the figure here is of a different aspect of their character: they hold back their stores of corn in the times of scarcity, for they speculate on receiving yet higher prices for it. 12 (from 173, to purify, to be pure) is thrashed grain, cf. Arab. burr, wheat, and nakky of the cleaning of the grain by the separation from it of the tares, etc. (F'l.); the word has Kametz, according to the Masora, as always in pause and in the history of Joseph. yi has Munach on the syllable preceding the last, on which the tone is thrown back, and Metheg with the Tsere as the sign of a pause, as i. 10 Y¥3 (vid. p. 67). Var, gui annonam vendit, is denom. of 72¥, properly that which is crushed, therefore grain (ΕἸ... DYDN?, which we would understand in the Proph. of nations, are here, as at xxiv. 24, the individuals of the people. The 7323 which falls on the head of the charitable is the thanks of his fellowcitizens, along with all good wishes.
That self-sacrificing endeavour after the good of others finds its reward in the thought encircling the following proverbs.
Ver. 27 He that striveth after good, seeketh that which is pleasing; And he that searcheth after evil, it shall find him.
Here we have together three synonyms of seeking: v'p3 (R. pa, findere), which has the general meaning querere, from the rootidea of penetrating and pressing forwards; 21 (R. 1, ¢erere), which from the root-idea of trying (proving) corresponds to the Lat. studere; and "NY (whence here WNW instead of ὝΠΟ, as 725 instead of 127), which means mane, and thus sedulo querere (vid. ati. 28). From 27), where by 737 is meant evil which one prepares for another, there arises for δ the idea of good thoughts and actions with reference to others. He who applies himself to such, seeks therewith that which is pleasing, 1.6. that which pleases or does good to others. If that which is pleasing to God were meant, then this would have been said (cf. xii. 2); the idea here is similar to x. 82, and the word &p2 is used, and not 8¥!, because reference is not made to a fact in the moral government of the world, but a description is given of one who is zealously intent upon good, and thus of a noble man. Such an one always asks himself (cf. Matt. vii. 12): what will, in the given case, be wellpleasing to the neighbour, what will tend to his true satisfaction? Regarding the punctuation here, ὙΠ, vid. at ver. 26. The subject to BNIIN, which, x. 24, stands as the fundamental idea, here follows from the governed 139, which may be the gen. (Ps. xxxviii. 13) as well as the accus. Ver. 28 He that trusteth in his riches shall fall, And the righteous shall flourish like the green leaf. 15’ (plene after the Masora) as well as the figure Py) (cf. for the punctuation |WY2), x. 26) are singular, but are understood if one observes that in 28a a withered tree, and in 28) a tree with leaves ever green, hovers before the imagination of the poet (cf. Ps. i. 3, Jer. xvii. 8). The proud rich man, who on the ground of his riches appears to himself to be free from danger, goes on to his ruin (5° as xi. 5, and frequently in the Book of Proverbs), while on the contrary the righteous continues to flourish like the leaf— they thus resemble the trees which perennially continue to flourish anew, Regarding ney as originally collective (Symm. θάλλος), vid, at Isa. i. 80, and regarding 718 (R. 15, to break), here of the continual breaking forth of fresh-growing leaf-buds, vid. at Isa. xi. 1. The apostolic word names this continual growth the metamorphosis of believers, 2 Cor. ii. 18. The LXX. has read my (approved by Hitzig): and he who raiseth up the righteous. Ver. 29 He that troubleth his own household shall inherit the wind, And a fool becomes servant to the wise in heart.
Jerome well translates: guz conturbat domum suam, for 13y closely corresponds to the Lat. turbare; but with what reference is the troubling or disturbing here meant? The Syr. translates 29a doubly, and refers it once to deceit, and the second time to the contrary of avarice; the LXX., by ὁ μὴ συμπεριφερόμενος τῷ ἑαυτοῦ οἴκῳ, understands one who acts towards his own not unsociably, or without affability, and thus not tyrannically. But 12) WY xi. 17, is he who does not grudge to his own body that which is necessary; oN” ἽΝ is applied to Elijah, 1 Kings xviii. 17, on account of whose prayer there was a want of rain; and at xv. 27 it is the covetous who is spoken of as in’a 13. The proverb has, accordingly, in the man who “troubles his own house” (Luth.), a niggard and sordid person (Hitziz) in view, one who does not give to his own, particularly to his own servants, a sufficiency of food and of necessary recreation. Far from raising himself by his household arrangements, he shall only inherit wind (en, not as the Syr. translates, ona, in the general signification to inherit, to obtain, as iii. 35, xxviii. 10, etc.), ze. he goes always farther and farther back (for he deprives his servants of all pleasure and love for their work in secking the prosperity of his house), till in the end the reality of his possession dissolves into nothing. Such conduct is not only loveless, but also foolish; and a foolish person (vid. regarding ON at i. 7) has no influence as the master of a house, and generally is unable to maintain his independence: “and the servant is a fool to him who is wise of heart.” Thus the LXX. (cf. also the LXX. of x. 5), Syr., Targ., Jerome, Greac. Venet., Luth. construe the sentence. The explanation, et servus stultt cordato (sc. addicitur), i.e. even the domestics of the covetous fool are at last partakers in the wise beneficence (F'.), places 290 in an unnecessary connection with 29a, omits the verb, which is here scarcely superfluous, and is not demanded by the accentuation (cf. e.g. xix. 22D). Ver. 30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And the wise man winneth souls. The LXX. translate, ἐκ καρποῦ δικαιοσύνης φύεται δένδρον ζωῆς; Hitzig takes thence the word PT¥; but this translation discredits itself by the unnatural reversal of the relation of fruit and tree. The fruit of the righteous is here not the good which his conduct brings to him, as Isa. iii. 10, Jer. xxxii. 19, but his activity itself proceeding from an internal impulse. This fruit is a tree of life. We need to supplement "78 [fruit] as little here as MX [a traveller] at x. 17; for the meaning of the proverb is, that the fruit of the righteous, 1.6. his external influence, itself is a tree of life (vid. p- 32), namely for others, since his words and actions exert a quickening, refreshing, happy influence upon them. By this means the wise (righteousness and wisdom come together according to the saying of the Chokma, i. 7a) becomes a winner of souls (np) as vi. 25, but taken in bonam partem), or, as expressed in the N. Τὶ (Matt. iv. 19), a fisher of men, for he gains them not only for himself, but also for the service of wisdom and righteousness. Ver. 31 Lo, the righteous findeth on earth his reward; How much more the godless and the sinner!
The particles 3 ἘΝ signify properly, interrogatively: Shall it yet be said that...; it corresponds to the German “ geschweige denn” [nedum] (ΕἾ.). 1Π is already in bibl. Hebr. in the way of becoming a conditional particle; it opens, as here, the antecedent of a gradatio a minori ad majus introduced by 15 48, Job xv. 15 f., xxv. 5 ἔν, ef. 3 (73n) with JR! following, Gen. xliv. 8, 2 Sam. xii. 18. xiii. 13 presents itself as the nearest parallel to Dby, where it means, to be rewarded. Itis a vocabulum anceps, and denotes full requital, i.é., according to the reference, either righteous reward or righteous punishment. If 30a is understood of reward, and 306 of punishment, then the force of the argument in the conclusion consists in this, that the righteous can put forth no claim to a recompense, because his well-doing is never so perfect as not to be mingled with sin (Eccles. vii. 20; Ps. exliii. 2); while, on the contrary, the repression of the wicked, who, as Y% as to his intention, and Nvin as to his conduct, actually denies his dependence on God, is demanded by divine holiness. But the conclusion is not stringent, since in the relation of God to the righteous His dispensation of grace and faithfulness to promises also come into view, and thus in both cases povh appears to require the same interpretation: if the righteous does not remain unrevenged, so much more shall not the godless and the sinner remain..., or how much less shall the godless and the sinner remain so. Thus the Grec. Venet., Θεῷ ὁ δίκαιος ἐν TH γῇ ἀποτιθήσεται; thus also Luther, and among the moderns Léwenstein and Elster. Of the proverb so understood the LX X. version, εἰ ὁ μὲν δίκαιος μόλις (μόγις) σώζεται, ὁ ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἁμαρτωλὸς ποῦ φανεῖται (cf. 1 Pet. iv. 18) may be a free translation, for in the oov* there certainly lies, according to the sense, a Yes Hyd, Also nbv» has the principal tone, not }7N2. The thought: even on this side (on earth), lies beyond the sphere of the O. T. consciousness. The earth is here the world of man.
Three proverbs on knowledge, the favour of God, firmness and the means thereto.
xii. 1 He loveth correction who loveth knowledge, And he hateth instruction who is without reason.
It is difficult in such cases to say which is the relation of the ideas that is intended. The sequence of words which lies nearest in the Semitic substantival clause is that in which the predicate is placed first; but the subject may, if it is to be made prominent, stand at the head of the sentence. Here, 10, the placing of the subject in advance recommends itself: one who hates instruction is devoid of reason. But since we have no reason in la to invert the order of the words as they lie together, we take the conceptions placed first in both cases as the predicates. Thus: he who loves knowledge shows and proves that he does so by this, that he willingly puts himself in the place of a learner; and devoid of reason is he who with aversion rejects reproof, which is designed to guard" him from future mistakes and false steps. Regarding the punctuation 378 nyt (with Mercha on the ante- penult. and the; Moyn-sign on the penult.), vid. at xi. 26 f.,i. 19. In 16 the Munach in nnn is transformed from Mugrash (Accentssystem, xviii. ὃ 2), as in xv. 100. Wa (cf. xxx. 2) is a being who is stupid as the brute cattle (7Y3, from 1Y3, to graze, cattle of all kinds; Arab. δ᾽ αν», the beast κατ᾽ ἐξ. 1.6. the camel); as a homo brutus is compared to a Mona (Ps.
αὐ απ dabb, a bear; thwr, an ox; hamdr, an ass) (ΕἸ.). Ver. 2 A good man obtaineth favour with Jahve, But the man of wicked devices He condemns. He who is an Nino wN (xiv. 17, cf. Ps. xxxvii. 7) is defined in xxiv. 8 (cf. p. 39): he is a man of devices (vid. regarding the etymon, p. 06), namely, that are wicked, one who contrives evil against his neighbour. The meaning si the subject-conception nid is defined according to this, although in itself also it is clear, for 319, used of God (e.g. Ps. Ixxiii. 1, Ixxxvi. 5) and of men (xiii. 22, xiv. 14), denotes the good (Zonus) in the sense of the benevolent (benignus); the Scripture truths, that God is love, that love is the essence of goodness and is the fulfilling of the law, are so conformed to reason, that they stamp themselves as immediate component parts of the human consciousness. A 2:0 is thus a man who acts according to the ruling motive of self-sacrificing love; such an one obtains (vid. cn PD’, educit = adipiscitur, at ii. 13) the favour of God, He is and shows Himself kind to him, while on the contrary He condemns the wicked intriguer. Hitzig translates: the former of intrigues is punishable (as the Syr.: is condemned; Targ.: his contrivance is shattered to pieces); but to become a YY = reus YW does not denote, but either to practise yw, Job xxxiv. 12, or to set forth as Y¥4=to condemn, Isa. |. 9. Taken in the former signification (Jerome, impie agit), a declaration is made which is not needed, since the moral badness already lies in the reference of the subject: thus yw will be used also of Jahve. In proof that the poet did not need to say WNNY), Zockler rightly points to x. 6, Job xxii. 29. Ver. 3 A man does not stand by wickedness, But the root of the righteous remains unmoved.
In Yt there lies the idea of want of inward stay (vid. at Ps. i. 1); in a manner of thought and of conduct which has no stay in God and Ilis law, there can be expected no external endurance, no solidity.
The righteous, on the contrary, have their root in God; nothing can tear them from the ground in which they are rooted, they are as trees which no storm outroots. The very same thought is clothed in other words in x. 25, and another statement regarding the root of the righteous is found at xii. 12.
We now place together vers. 4-12. One proverb concerning the house-wife forms the beginning of this group, and four regarding the management of the house and business form the conclusion.
Ver. 4 A good [brave] wife is the crown of her husband, But as rottenness in his bones is one that causeth shame.
As xi. 16 says of jf nw, the pleasant wife (IN τε χάρις), that she obtaineth honour, so this proverb of On NUR, the good wife (0 = ἀρετή, virtus), that she raises her husband to higher honour: she is for his self-consciousness στέφανος καυχήσεως (1 Thess. ii. 19), and is also to him such a crown of honour before the world (cf. xxxi. 23). On the contrary, a 721, conducting herself shamefully (cf. regarding the double meaning of this ALishle word, which only here occurs in the fem., at x. 5), is to her husband instar cariei in ossibus. 3?) (AP), x. 7) denotes both the caries and the worm-hole (cf. Job xli. 19, i227 /Y, worm-eaten wood). Like as the caries slowly but continuously increases, till at last the part of the body which the bone bears and the whole life of the man falls to ruin; so an unhappy marriage gnaws at the marrow of life, it destroys the happiness of life, disturbs the pursuit, undermines the life of the husband.
Ver. 5 The thoughts of the righteous are justice, The counsels of the godless are deceit.
They are so, that is, in their contents and their aim. To the righteous are ascribed ΤῚΣ ΤΙΣ, namely, simple and clear; to the godless, nirann, carefully thought out, prudently thought through schemes and measures (regarding the word and the idea, vid. p. 57), but on that very account not simple, because with a tendency; for the righteous have an objective rule, namely, that which is right in the sight of God and of men, but the godless have only aselfish purpose, which they seek to attain by deceiving and at the cost of, their neighbour.
Ver. 6 The word of the godless is to lie in wait for the blood of others, But the mouth of the upright delivereth them.
Our editions have DW 34, but the right sequence of the accents (in Cod. 1294 and elsewhere) i is YW 34; the logical relation in this transformation, which is only ΗΝ μενα ἐσα!!ν conditioned, remains the same. The vocalization wavers between “218, silat would be imper., and “278, which is infin., like Tox, xxv. i; “Way, xxi. 11, “DON, Gen. ili. 11. However one punctuates it, the infin. is intended in any case, in which the expression always remains sketchy enough: the words of the godless are lying in wait for blood, ae. they are calculated to ὙῊΝ others to this, into the danger of their lives, eg. before the tribunal by false charges and false witness. D7 is the accus. of the object; for instead of Dip Ts (i. 11), to lurk for blood, a shorter expression, 03 28, is used (Ewald, ὃ 282a). The ii find of Dy! might appear, ΜΕ xi. 6a, to refer back to the D9; but the thought that their mouth saves the upright, that they dott know to speak themselves out of the danger, is by far less appropriate (vid., on the contrary, ΠΝ, xi. 9) than the thought that the mouth of the upright delivereth from danger those whose lives are threatened by the godless, as is rightly explained by Ewald, Bertheau, Elster. The personal subject or object is in the Mashial style often to be evolved from the connection, 6.4. xiv. 26, xix. 23. Ver. 7 The godless are overturned and are no more, But the house of the righteous stands.
Bertheau and Zockler explain: The wicked turn about, then are they no more; 1.6. as we say: it is over with them “in the turning of a hand.” The noun in the inf. absol. may certainly be the subject, like xvii. 12, as well as the object (Kwald, ὃ 328c), and 727 may be used of the turning about of oneself, Ps. Ixxviii. 9, 2 Kings v. 26, 2 Chron. ix. 12. That explanation also may claim for itself that 789 nowhere occurs with a personal object, if we except one questionable passage, Isa. i. 7. But here the interpretation of the p'ywnas the object lies near the contrast of n’a, and moreover the interpretation of the 77, not in the sense of στρέ- φεσθαι (LXX.), but of καταστρέφειν (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Gree. Venet., Luther), lies near the contrast of Toy. The ΠΣ absol. thus πάρ the power from which the catastrophe proceeds indefinite, as the puss. 3357* would also leave it, and the act de-
1 Elias Levita, in his note to the root Ab in Kimchi’s Wérlerbuch, reads pd yn, and so also do 6 codd. in Kennicot. But 75 is masculine.
signedly presented in a vague manner to connect with } the certain consequences therewith, as xxv. 4 f., as if to say: there comes only from some quarter an unparalleled overthrow which overwhelms the godless; thus no rising up again is to be thought on, it is all over with them; while, on the contrary, the house of the righteous withstands the storm which sweeps away the godless. Ver. 8 According to the measure of his intelligence is a man pra‘sed, And whoever is of a perverse mind is despised. Everywhere in the Mishle >2¥ has no other meaning than intellectus (vid. p. 87). The praise which is given to a man measures itself το ‘Ad (punctuate ‘Dab BD, according to Torath Emeth, p. 41, Accentssystem, xx. ὃ 1), i.e. according to the measure (so ‘59 is used in the oldest form of the language) of his intelligence, or as we may also say, of his culture; forin these proverbs, which make the fear of God the highest principle, Ss means also understanding of moral excellence, not merely the intellectual superiority of natural gifts. Oba is here a relative conception of manifold gradations, but it does not mean renown in general, but good renown. Parallel with ρον, 20 refers to the understanding (νοῦς); the rendering of Lowenstein, “who is of false heart,” is defective. MY) (synon. of ra) and wpy, but nowhere else interchanging with it) means here a vero et recto detortus et aversus (F].). Such aman who has not a good understanding, nor any certain rule of judgment, falls under contempt (Grac. Venet. τῷ ὀντωτῇ εἰς μυσαγμόν, after the false reading of ΠῚΠ᾽ instead of m7), te. he defames himself by his crooked judgment of men, of things and their relations, and is on this account in no position rightly te make use of them. Ver. 9 Better is he who is lowly and has a servant, Than he that makes himself mighty and is without bread.
This proverb, like xv. 17, commends the middle rank of life with its quiet excellences. ΠΡῸΣ (like 1 Sam. xviii. 23), from nop, cognate with Op, Syr. ’kly, to despise, properly levi pendere, levem habere (whence HOP, scorn, disgrace), here of a man who lives in a humble position and does not seek to raise himself up. Many of the ancients (LX X., Symmachus, Jerome, Syr., Rashi, Luther, Schultens) explain 12 733) by, and is a servant to himself, serves himself; but in that case the words would have been ἀπο Tay (Syr. AWE? 9001), or rather NT ὑπ), 12 ἼΔ) would be more appropriate, as thus pointed by Ziegler, Ewald, and Hitzig. But if one adheres to the traditional reading, and interprets this, as it
The explanation: the righteous taketh care for the life of his beast (ΕἸ.), fails, for 10a is to be taken with Ex. xxiii. 9; W52 signifies also the state of one’s soul, the frame of mind, the state of feeling; but ΜῈ" has, as in the related proverb, xxvii. 23, the meaning of careful cognizance or investigation, in conformity with which one acts. If the Zord includes in the law of the Sabbath (Ex. xx. 10, xxili. 12) useful beasts and cattle, which are here especially meant, and secures to them the reward of their labour (Deut. xxv. 4); if it forbids the mutilation, and generally the giving of unnecessary pain, to beasts; if it enjoins those who take a bird’s nest to let the dam escape (Deut. xxii. 6 f.),—these are the prefigurations of that mona way nyt, and as the God of the Tord thus appears at the close of the Book of Jonah, this wonderful apology (defensio) of the allembracing compassion, the God also of the world-history in this sympathy for the beasts of the earth as the type of the righteous.
In 10 most interpreters find an oxymoron: the compassion of the godless is compassionless, the direct opposite of compassion; 1.e. he possesses either altogether no compassion, or he shows such as in its principle, its expression, and in its effects is the opposite of what it ought to be (ΕἸ.). Bertheau believes that in the sing. of the predicate "128 he is justified in translating: the compassion of the wicked is a tyranny. And as one may speak of a loveless love, t.e. of a love which in its principle is nothing else than selfishness, so also of a compassionless compassion, such as consists only in gesture and speech, without truth of feeling and of active results. But how such a compassionless compassion toward the cattle, and one which is really cruel, is possible, it may be difficult to show. Hitzio’s conjecture, ΠῚ, sprang from this thought: the most merciful among sinners are cruel—the sinner is as such not 037, The LXX. is right in the rendering, τὰ δὲ σπλάγχνα τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἀνελεήμονα. The noun 0M means here not compassion, but, as in Gen. xlii. 80 (LXX. ἔντερα or ἔγκατα) and 1 Kings li. 26 (LXX. μήτρα), has the meaning the bowels (properly tender parts, cf. Arab. rakhuma, to be soft, tender, with rhm), and thus the interior of the body, in which deep emotions, and especially strong sympathy, are wont to be reflected (cf. Hos. x. 8). The singular of the predicate “138 arises here from the unity of the subject-conception: the inwards, as Jer. |. 12, from the reference of the expression to each individual of the many. Ver. 11 He that tilleth his own ground is satisfied with bread,
And he that followeth after vain pursuits is devoid of understanding. Yet more complete is the antithetic parallelism in the doublette, xxvili. 19 (cf. also Sir. xx. 27a). The proverb recommends the cultivation of the field as the surest means of supporting oneself honestly and abundantly, in contrast to the grasping after vain, i.e. unrighteous means of subsistence, windy speculations, and the like (ΕἸ.). oO’) are here not persons (Bertheau), but things without solidity and value (LXX. μάταια; Aquila, Theodotion, κενά), and, in conformity with the contrast, not real business, Elsewhere also the mas. plur. discharges the function of a neut. noun of multitude, vid. 0°, principalia, vill. 6, and Ot, Ps. xix. 14—one of the many examples of the imperfect use of the gender in Hebr.; the speaker has in D'p%, vana et inania, not DWIN (Judg. ix. 4), but o279 (Deut. xxxii. 47) in view. The LXX. erroneously at xxviii. 19, and Symmachus and Jerome at both places understand op of slothfulness.
But the root of the righteous shoots forth.
This translation is at the same time an explanation, and agrees with Fleischer’s “the godless strives by unrighteous gain like the wicked (iv. 14) to enrich himself, namely, as must be understood from the antithetic members of the parallelism, in vain, without thereby making progress and gaining anything certain. The preterite, as xi. 2, 8, ete., places the general true proposition as a separate historic principle derived from experience. In 120 jn’ stands elliptically or pregnantly: edet, scil. quod radix edere solet, sobolem stirpis, ramorum, ete., as in the Arab. natan and Gnatan are specially used without an obj. of the spontaneousness of an odour.” N32 (from ἭΝ, to spy, to hunt) is elsewhere the instrument of the hunt (a net), here the object and end of it. If the words had been DY] "SD, then we would explain after DY "NPD, Ps. Ixxviii. 49 (vid. soak on), and 37 NWS, vi. 243 but in ne difference of number, oy will not be the ‘qtialiiaties but the subjective personal genitive: capturam qualem mali captant. Yuwald, who understands on, 114, of good-for-nothing-fellows, interprets D'y7 here, on the contrary, as neuter (ὃ 1720}: the desire of the wicked is an evil net, 1.6. wherein he catches all manner of evil for himself. The LXX. has here two proverbs, in which ¥ occurs in the plur. and in the sense of ὀχυρώματα; 126 of the Hebr. text is rendered: ai δὲ ῥίζαι τῶν εὐσεβῶν ἐν ὀχρυώμασι, which Schleusner explains immote erunt. The Hebr. text can gain nothing from this variation. That the LX X. read |X DP ¥ WW is not probable, since they nowhere thus translate jx. But Reiske and Ziegler have, like Ewald and Hitzig, combined {® of this proverb with jn’ from jn'x (Arab. watin), firmum, perennem esse. Hitzig translates the distich, after emending the text of 12a by the help of the LXX. and the Arab.: the refuge of the wicked is crumbling clay, but the root of the richteous endures (}0 from jn). Bottcher also reads “19M instead of Ἴ2Π, and translates (vid. p. 192,1.11): the refuge of the wicked is miry clay, but the root of the εὐρπεθτα holdeth fast (in' = Arab. wdtin). But this derivation of a verb jm is not necessary. The Gree. Venet. rightly, ῥίζα δὲ δικαίων δώσει. The obj. is selfevident. Rashi reads "an sim jm Nw AW MD. So also Schultens. The root giveth, is equivalent to, it is productive in bringing forth that which lies in its nature. That the root of the righteous endures (Targ. D°?N2) is otherwise expressed, xii. 3.
Proverbs regarding injurious and beneficial words, wise hearing and prudent ailendet
Ver. 13 In the transgression of the lips there lies a dangerous snare; The righteous escapeth from trouble.
The consecutive modus (8¥%) is here of greater weight than eg.
at xi. 8, where the connection follows without it (82%) from the idea of the change of place. The translation: but the righteous... restores 8¥") (83%), and ignores the syllogistic relation of the members of the proverb, which shows itself here (cf. the contrary, xi, 9) to a certain degree by δἰ ἢ, Ewald displaces this relation, for he paraphrases: ‘“ any one may easily come into great danger by means of inconsiderate words; yet it is to be hoped that thie righteous may escape, for he will guard himself against evil from the beginning.” He is right here in interpreting M¥ and 2 wpin as the designation of danger into which one is betrayed by the transgressions of his lips, but “ inconsiderate words” are less than pray yvia, One must not be misled into connecting with YW. the idea of missing, or a false step, from the circumstance that ΝΞ means a step; both verbs have, it is true, the common R. wa with the fundamental idea of placing apart or separating, but YWB has nothing to do with Y¥B (step=placing apart of the legs), but denotes (as Arab. fusuwh jisk, from the primary meaning diruptio, diremtio) a sinning, breaking through and breaking off the relation to God (cf. e.g. xxviii. 24), or even the restraints of morality (x. 19). Such a sinning, which fastens itself to, and runs even among the righteous, would not be called ywa, but rather NNDNM (xx. 9). According to this the proverb will mean that sinful words bring into extreme danger every one who indulges in them—a danger which he can with difficulty escape; and that thus the righteous, who guards himself against sinful words, escapes from the distress (cf. with the expression, Eccles. vii. 18) into which one is thereby betrayed. 1 is the descriptive and expressive epithet to wpn (cf. Eccles. ix. 12): a bad false trap, a malicious snare, for wpi is the snare which closes together and catches the bird by the feet. This proverb is repeated at xxix. 6, peculiarly remodelled. The LXX. has after ver. 13 another distich: He who is of mild countenance findeth mercy; He who is litigious oppresseth souls. (ΓΒ), or rather, more in accordance with the Hebrew original: oppresseth himself, 1w53.) Ver. 14 From the fruit which the mouth of the man bringeth forth is he satisfied with good, And what the hands of the man accomplish returns back to him.
The proverb finds its final verification in the last judgment (cf. Matt. xii. 37), but it is also illustrated in the present life. If the mouth of a man bringeth forth fruit,—namely, the fruit of wholesome doctrine, of right guidance, of comforting exhortation, of peace-bringing consolation for others,—this fruit is also to his own advantage, he richly enjoys the good which flows out of his own mouth, the blessing he bestows is also a blessing for himself. The same also is the case with the actions of aman. That which is done, or the service which is rendered by his hands, comes back to him as a reward or as a punishment. 2103 signifies primarily accomplishment, execution, and is a twofold, double-sided conception: a rendering of good or evil, and merit on the side of men (whether merited reward or merited punishment), as well as recompense, requital on the side of God. The first line is repeated, somewhat altered, at xill. 2, xviii. 20. The whole proverb is prophetically echoed in Isa. iii. 10 ἢ, The Ket 2 has Jahve as the subject, or rather the subject remains undefined, and “ one requites him ” is equivalent to: it is requited to him. The Chethib seems to us more expressive; but this use of the active with the undefined subject, instead of the passive, is certainly as much in the Mishle style (cf. xii, 21) as the development of the subject of the clause from a foregoing genitive. Ver. 15 The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, But the wise listeneth to counsel.
Other proverbs, like xvi. 2, say that generally the judgment of a man regarding his character does not go beyond a narrow subjectivity; but there are objective criteria according to which a man cau prove whether the way in which he walks is right; but the fool knows no other standard than his own opinion, and however clearly and truly one may warn him that the way which he has chosen is the wrong way and leads to a false end, yet he obstinately persists;* while a wise man is not so wise in his own eyes (iil. 7) as not to be willing to listen to well-meant counsel, because, however careful he may be regarding his conduct, yet he does not regard his own judgment so unerring as not to be inclined ever anew to try it and let it stand the test. Ewald has falsely construed: yet whoever hears counsel is wise. In consequence of the contrast, ON and 03M are the subject ideas, and with nyy? yovr is brought forward that which is in contrast to the self-complacency of the fool, the conduct of the wise man.
1 Vid. kindred proverbs by Carl Schulze, Die bibu. Sprichwirter der deutschen same as in the preceding verse. The fool makes known his vexation on the same day [at once], On the contrary, the prudent man hideth the offence.
Very frequently in these proverbs the first line is only defined by the adducing of the second, or the second holds itself in the hght of the first. A post-bibl. proverb says that a man is known by three things: by his 513 (his behaviour in drinking), his Ὁ. (his conduct in money transactions), and his py (his conduct under deep inward excitement). So here: he is a fool who, if some injury is done to him, immediately shows his vexation in a passionate manner; while, on the contrary, the prudent man maintains silence as to the dishonour that is done to him, and represses lis displeasure, 80 as not to increase his vexation to his own injury. Passionless retaliation may in certain cases be a duty of self-preservation, and may appear to be necessary for the protection of truth, but passionate self-defence is always of evil, whether the injury which is inflicted be justifiable or unjustifiable. Regarding OY, callidus, vid. p. 56; Schultens’ comparison of the Greek γεγυμνασμένος is only a conceit in want of better knowledge. Regarding 7D3 (only here and at ver. 23) with MD2, as NW’ (only xi. 27) with 7nwp, vid. Ewald, §170a. ΟΝ signifies on the self-same day = without delay, immediately, and is well translated by the LXX. αὐθήμερον. With another object, 160 is repeated in 23a.
Most of the remaining parables of this section refer to the right use and the abuse of the tongue.
Ver. 17 He that breathes the love of truth, utters that which is right; But a lying tongue, deceit.
This verse is similar in meaning to xiv. 5 (where 5) = vi. 19a); the second line of the distich—=xiv. 256. Everywhere else M5 D’!D stand together, only here m5) is joined to 72D8; vid. regarding this ΠΕ forming an attributive clause, and then employed as an adjective, but with distinct verbal force, at vi. 19. Viewed superficially, the proverb appears tautological; it is not so, however, but places in causal connection the internal character of men and their utterances: whoever breathes 12308, truth or conscientiousness (the property of the PON, vid. at Ps. xii. 2), i.e. lets the voice of this be heard in his utterances, such an one speaks P73, 1.6. uprightness, integrity, that which is correct, right (Isa. xlv. 19, cf. xli. 26), in relation to truth in general, ee to the present case in particular; but he who DPY ἽΝ, ze. he who, against better knowledge and the consciousness of untruth, confirms by his testimony (from ‘ny, revertere, to say again and again), therewith gives utterance to his impure character, his wicked intention, proceeding from delight in doing evil or from self-interest, and diverted towards the injury of his neighbour. As 2198 and nM» correspond as statements of the contents of the utterances, so pay and ΣῚΡ as statements of their motive and aim. 97) is obj. accus. of the 73° (from T2, to bring to light, cf. 122, visibility) to be supplied, not the pred. nom. dolorum structor, as Fleischer poetically finds. Ver. 18 There is that babbleth like the thrusts of a sword, But the tongue of the wise is healing.
The second (cf. xi. 24) of the proverbs beginning with &. The verb Mba (ND2), peculiar to the Hebr., which in the modern Hebr. generally means “to speak out” (8D2 in the grammar: the pronunciation) (according to which the LXX., Syr., and Targ. translate it by 235), means in biblical Hebr., especially with reference to the binding of oneself by an oath (Lev. v. 4), and to solemn protestations (Num. xxx. 7, 9, according to which Jerome, promittit): to utter incautiously in words, to speak without thought and at random, referred erroneously by Gesenius to the R. p32, to be hollow, probably a word imitative of the sound, like the Greek βατταρίζειν, to stammer, and βαττολογεῖν, to babble, which the lexicographers refer to a talkative person of the name of Βάττος, as our “ salbadern” [=to talk foolishly] owes its origin to one Jenaer Bader on the Saal. Theod. and the Grac. Venet. give the false reading NDi3 (πεποιθώς). IN NiPW3 stands loco accusativi, the 3 being regarded as a noun: (effutiens verba) que sunt instar confossionum gladii (F1.). We also call such a man, who bridles his loquacity neither by reflection nor moderates it by indulgent reference to his fellow-men, a Schwertmaul (sword-mouth) or a Schandmaul (a mouth of shame=slanderer), and say that he has a tongue like a sword. But on the other hand, the tongue of the wise, which is in itself pure gentleness and a comfort to others, since, far from wounding, rather, by means of comforting, supporting, directing exhortation, exercises a soothing and calming influence. Regarding 851, whence 8572, Dietrich in Gesenius’ Lea. is right. The root-meaning of the verb 83) (cognate ΠΡ, to be loose, Hiph. to let go, Hithpa. xviii. 9, to show oneself slothful) is, as the Arab. kindred word γα, rafa, raf, raf (rdf) shows, that of stilling, softening, soothing, whence arises the meanjng of healing (for which the Arab. has tabb and ’alkh); the meaning to repair, to mend, which the Arab. rafé and rafa have, does not stand in a prior relation to to heal, as might appear from Job xiii. 4, but is a specializing of the general idea of reficere lying in mitigare, just as the patcher is called ἀκέστρια = ἤἠπήτρια, from ἀκέομαι, which means equally to still and to heal. Since thus in x5 the meanings of mitigating and of healing are involved, it is plain that ΝΞ, as it means healing (the remedy) and at the same time (cf. θεραπεία, Rev. xxii. 2) the preservation of health, iv. 22, vi. 15, xvi. 24, xxix. 1, so also may mean mildness (here and xv. 4), tranquillity (xiv. 30; Eccles. x. 4, calm patience in contrast to violent passion), and refreshing (xii. 11). Odcetinger and Hitzig translate here “ medicine;” our translation, “healing (the means of healing),” is not essentially different from it. Ver. 19 The lip of truth endures for ever, But the lying tongue only while I-wink with the eye.
None of the old translators understood the phrase AYN TW; the Venet. also, which follows Kimchi's first explanation, is incorrect: éws ῥήξεως, till I split (shatter) it (the tongue). Abulwalid is nearer the correct rendering when he takes AYN as a noun = v3 with He parag. Ahron Ὁ. Joseph is better in rendering the phrase by: until I make a yx, and quite correct if ym (from ya = Arab. raj’, which is used of the swinging of the balance) is taken in the sense of a twinkling of the eye (Schultens: vibramen); cf. Orelli’s Die hebr. Synonyme der Zeit und Ewigkeit, p. 27 f., where the synonyms for a twinkling of the eye, a moment, are placed together. ἫΝ (properly progress) has in this phrase the meaning, while, so long as, and the cohortative signifies, in contradistinction to 8398, which may also denote an unwilling movement of the eyelids, a movement proceeding from a free determination, serving for the measurement of a short space of time, Ewald, ὃ 228a. nmyyns, Jer. xlix. 19, 1. 44, where Ewald takes ays 13 (when I...) in the same sense as AYIINTN here, which is more appropriate than the explanation of Hitzig, who regards ‘3 as opening the principal clause, and attaches to yn the quite too pregnant signification “ to need (for an action) only a moment.” The lip of truth, z.e. the lip which speaketh truth, endures for ever falsehood is only for a moment, or a wink of the eye, for it is soon convicted, and with disgrace brings to silence; for a post-bibl. Aram. proverb says: ‘SP N? NPY NP NOVAP, the truth endures, the lie endures not (Schabbath 104a), and a Hebrew proverb: Dn δ ps "pW, the lie has no feet (on which it can stand).? Ver. 20 Deceit is in the heart of him who deviseth evil, But those who devise peace cause joy.
Regarding the figure of forging, fabricating (LXX., Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, τεκταίνειν), or of ploughing, which underlies the phrase 32 Y2N, moliri malum, vid. at iii. 29. That deceit is in the heart of him who deviseth evil (39 ὙΡΊΠΓΣΟΞ, as is correctly punctuated e.g. by Norzi) appears to be a platitude, for the 37 YN is as such directed against a neighbour. But in the first place, 20a in itself says that the evil which a man hatches against another always issues in a fraudulent, malicious deception of the same; and in the second place, it says, when taken in connection with 206, where 77% is the parallel word to 710, that with the deception he always at the same time prepares for him sorrow. The contrast to ΝῊ ‘van is Die’ *yyir, and thus denotes not those who give counsel to contending parties to conclude peace, but such as devise peace, viz. in reference to the neighbour, for yy’ means not merely to impart counsel, but also mentally to devise, to resolve upon, to decree, 2 Chron. xxv. 16, Isa. xxxii. 7 f. 5 cf. ty pw, Jer. xlix. 30. Hlitzig and Zéckler give to pov the general idea of welfare (that which is salutary), and interpret the nnny as the inner joy of the good conscience. Certainly iby (R. ὃν, extrahere, in the sense of deliverance from trouble) means not only peace as to the external relationship of men with each other, but also both internal and external welfare. Thus it is here meant of external welfare; Hitzig rightly compares Jer. xxix. 11 with Nahum i. 11 to the contrast between o1>v¥ and yn. But as ΠΟ is not self-deception, but the deception of another, so also ΠΟ is not the joy of those who devise the device in their kearts for the deception of others, but the joy they procure for others. Thoughts of peace for one’s neighbour are always thoughts of procuring joy for him, as thoughts of evil are thoughts of deceit, and thus of procuring sorrow for him. ‘Thus ‘yy is an abbreviated expression for ‘yyy 203), 1 Vid. Duke’s Rabbin. Blumenlese (1844), p. 231.
Ver. 21 No evil befalls the righteous, But the godless are full of evil. Hitzig translates [8 “sorrow,” and Zockler “injury;” but the word signifies evil as ethical wickedness, and although it may be used of any misfortune in general (as in ‘3iN}3, opp. pa); thus it denotes especially such sorrow as is the harvest and product of sin, xxil. 8, Job iv. 8, Isa. lix. 4, or such as brings after it punishment, Hab. iii. 7, Jer. iv. 15. That it is also here thus meant the contrast makes evident. The godless are fullof evil, for the moral evil which is their life-element brings out of itself all kinds of evil; on the contrary, no kind of evil, such as sin brings forth and produces, falls upon the righteous. (God, as giving form to human fortune (Ex. xxi. 13), remains in the background (cf. Ps. xci. 10 with v. 1f.); vid. regarding 73x, the weaker power of ΠΝ, to go against, to meet, to march against, Fleischer, Levy’s Chald. Wortbuch, 572. Ver. 22 Lying lips are an abhorrence to Jahve, And they that deal truly are His delight. The frame of the distich is like xi. 1, 20. 2398 is probity as the harmony between the words and the inward thoughts. The LX X., which translates ὁ δὲ ποιῶν πίστεις, had in view DNDN ΠΝ (DN AwWY, cf. Isa. xxvi. 2); the text of all other translations agrees with that commonly received. Ver. 23 A prudent man conceals knowledge, And a heart-fool proclaims imbecility.
In 23a ver. 160 is repeated, only a little changed; also 16a corresponds with 23a, for, as is there said, the fool knows not how to keep his anger to himself, as here, that a heart-fool (cf. the lying mouth, 22a) proclaims (trumpets forth), or as xiii. 16 says, displays folly without referring to himself the δὲ tacuisses. [ΤῸ this forward charalatan blustering, which intends to preach wisdom and yet proclaims in the world mere folly, z.e. nonsense and imbecility, and thereby makes itself troublesome, and only to be langhed at and despised, stands in contrast the relation of the DY OI, homo callidus, who possesses knowledge, but keeps it to himself without bringing it forth till an occasion presents itself for setting it forth at the right place, at the right time, and to the right man. The right motive also regulates such silence as well as modesty. But this proverb places it under the point of view of prudence.
We take verses 24-28 together as a group. In these verses the subject isthe means of rising (in the world), and the two ways, tlie one of which leads to error, and the other to life. Ver. 24 The hand of the diligent attains to dominion, But slothfulness will become tributary. In x. 4 1") was adj., but to 42 standing beside it; here it is to be regarded as adj. to 7! (sluggish hand) supplied from 24a, but may be equally regarded as a subst. (slothfulness) (vid. at ver. Diy. Regarding ΤΠ, vid. p. 211. Ὁ signifies tribute and service, i.e. tributary service rendered toa master. In xi. 290 72Y stands for it. It is still the experience of to-day, as it was of Solomon’s time, that slothfulness (indolence) brings down to a state of servitude, if not even deeper, but that vigorous activity raises to dominion or to the position of a master, ze. to independence, wealth, respect, and power. Ver. 25 Trouble in the heart of a man boweth it down, And a friendly word maketh it glad. The twofold anomaly that 7387 is construed as masc. and 29 as fem. renders the text doubtful, but the LXX., Syr., Targum, which introduce another subject, φοβερὸς λόγος (28727212), do not improve it; Theodotion’s is preferable, who translates μέριμνα ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνδρὸς κατίσχεν αὐτόν, and thus reads 39%. But the rhyme is thereby lost. As 7123, Gen. xlix. 6, so also may 2 be used as fem., for one thereby thinks on v3; the plur. niap (nia3?), according to which in Ezek. xvi. 30 we find the sing. n3?, may also conform to this. And m3nw as pred. to 737 follows the scheme ii. 100, perhaps not withoyt attractional co-operation after the scheme o'nn o 33 Γι, 1 Sam. ii. 4. ANA, from ANY, occurs only here; but ΠΟΤ, from NNW, occurs only twice. 40 734 designates in the book of Joshua and in Kings (1 Kings viii. 56) the divine promise; here it is of the same meaning as 1 Kings xi. 7: an appeasing word. Whohas not in himself had this experience, how such a word of friendly encouragement from a sympathizing heart cheers the sorrowful soul, and, if only for a time, changes its sorrow into the joy of confidence and of hope! Ver. 26 The righteous looketh after his pastures, But the way of the godless leadeth them into error. In 26a no acceptable meaning is to be gained from the traditional mode of vocalization. Most of the ancients translate W. as part. to 7M, as it occurs in post-bib. Hebr., e.g. 7M! 730, prevailing, altogether peculiar love. Thus the Targum, 7730 ἢ5 20; Venet.
πεπερίττευται (after Kimchi); on the other hand, Aquila, active: περισσεύων τὸν πλησίον (making the neighbour rich), which the meaning of the Kal as well as the form 17 oppose; Luther, “The righteous man is better than his neighbour,” according to which Fleischer also explains, “ Probably 1M from 1D‘, πλεονάζειν, has the meaning of πλέον ἔχων, πλεονεκτῶν, he gains more honour, respect, riches, etc., than the other, viz. the unrighteous.” Yet more satisfactory Ahron b. Joseph: not the nobility and the name, but this, that he is righteous, raises a man above others. In this sense we would approve of the prestantior altero justus, if only the two parts of the proverb were not by such a rendering wholly isolated from one another. Thus 1M is to be treated as the fut. of 15. The Syr. understands it of right counsel; and in like manner Schultens explains it, with Cocceius, of intelligent, skilful guidance, and the moderns (e.g. Gesenius) for the most part of guidance generally. Ewald rather seeks (because the proverbstyle avoids the placing of a fut. verb at the commencement of the proverb [but cf. xvii. 10]) to interpret 7M’ as a noun in the sense of director, but his justification of the fixed ὦ is unfounded. And generally this sense of the word is exposed to many objections. The verb 11M signifies, after its root, to go about, “to make to go about,” but is, however, not equivalent to, to lead (wherefore Bottcher too ingeniously derives 10) = 108) from ans = Ws); and wherefore this strange word, since the Book of Proverbs is so rich in synonyms of leading and guiding! The Hiph. VYN7 signifies to send to spy, Judg. i. 23, and in this sense the poet ought to have said my? Wn: the εἰβοκέθαηα spies out (the way) for his “neighbour, he serves him, as the Targum-Talmud would say, as ἢ, Thus connected with the obj. accus. the explanation would cer tainly be: the righteous searches out his neighbour (Lowenstein), he has intercourse with men, according to the maxim, “ 7rau schaw wen.” But why not 7, but YI, which occurs only once, xix. 7, in the Mishle, and then for an evident reason? Therefore, with Doderlein, Dathe, J. D. Michaelis, Zievler, and Hitzig, we prefer to read 791; it is at least not necessary, with Hitzig, ‘to change ἽΠ) into 1D, since the Hiphil may have the force of the intens. of the Kal, Gut "nm without the jussive signification is a poetic licence for 1M. That "wn can quite well be used of the exploring of the pasture, the deriv. 4, Job xxxix. 18, shows. Thus altered, 26a falls into an appropriately contrasted relation to 26d. The way of the godless leads them into error; the course of life to which they have given themselves up has such a power over them that they cannot set themselves free from it, and it leads the enslaved into destruction: the righteous, on the contrary, is free with respect to the way which he takes and the place where he stays; his view (regard) is directed to his true advancement, and he looketh after his pasture, 1.6. examines and discovers, where for him right pasture, we. the advancement of his outer and inner life, is to be found. With ΠΣ there is a combination of the thought of this verse with the following, whose catchi-word is 17°S, his prey. Ver. 27 The slothful pursues not his prey; But a precious possession of a man is diligence. The LXX., Syr., Targ., and Jerome render 71 in the sense of obtaining or catching, but the verbal stem ὙΠ nowhere has this meaning. When Ble ere remarks, 310, da. Aey., probably like 129, properly to entangle in a noose, a net, he supports his opinion by reference to 0°32, which signifies Cees, properly, woven or knitted like a net. But 390, whence this o35n, appears to be equivalent to the Arab. khark, fissura, so that the τ gives the idea of a manifoldly divided (lattice-like, trellis-formed) window. The Jewish lexicographers (Menahem, Abulwalid, Parchon, also Juda b. Koreish) all aim at that which is in accord with the meaning of the Aram. 31, to singe, to roast (=Arab, hark): the slothful τὸν μι not his prey, whether (as Fiirst presents it) because he is too lazy to hunt for it (Berth.), or because when he has it he prepares it not for enjoyment (Ewald). But to roast is πον, not 779, which is used only of singeing, e.g. the hair, and roasting, e.g. ears of corn, but not of the roasting of flesh, ie which reason Joseph Kimehi (vid. Kimchi’s Lew.) eheasaatle ys of wild fowls, and Jin of the singeing of the tips of the wings, so that they cannot fly away, according to which the Venet. translates οὐ μενεῖ.... ἡ θήρα αὐτοῦ. Thus the Arab. must often help to a right interpretation of the az. Aey. Schultens is right: Verbum harak, ὙΠ, apud Arabes est movere, ciere, excitare, κινεῖν generatim, et speciatim excitare predam ὁ cubili, κινεῖν τὴν θήραν. The Lat. agitare, used of the frightening up and driving forth of wild beasts, corresponds with the idea here, as e.g. used by Ovid, Metam. x. 538, of Diana:
Aut pronos lepores aut celsum in cornua cervum Aut agitat damas.
Thus Jn together with ¥ gains the meaning of hunting, and generally of catching the prey. 27 is here incarnate slothfulness, and thus without ellipse equivalent to M27 ws. That in the contrasted clause prin does not mean ἀποτόμως, decreed (Léwenstein), nor gold (Targ., Jerome, Venet.), nor that which is excellent (Syr.), is manifest from this contrast as well as from x. 4, xii. 24. The clause has from its sequence of words something striking about it. The LXX. placed the words in a different order: κτῆμα δὲ τίμιον ἀνὴρ καθαρὸς (ion in the sense of Arab. khdlas). But besides this transposition, two others have been tried: Nn OWN pa “p’, the possession of an industrious man is precious, and D3N8 4p’ pin yn, a precious possession is that (supply ἢΠ) of an industrious man. But the traditional arrangement of the words gives a better meaning than these modifications. It is not, however, to be explained, with Ewald and Bertheau: a precious treasure of a man is one who is industrious, for why should the industrious man be thought of as a worker for another and not for himself? Another explanation advanced by Kimchi: a valuable possession to men is industry, has the twofold advantage that it is according to the existing sequence of the words, and presents a more intelligible thought. But can YN have the meaning of M8" (the being industrious)? Hitzig reads 7177, to make haste (to be industrious). This is unnecessary, for we have here a case similar to x. 17, where ὙΦ for Hi is to be expected: a precious possession of a man is it that, or when, he is industrious, YN briefly for (0 ini, The accentuation fluctuates between "i?" DIN“ (so e.g. Cod. 1294), according to which the Targum translates, and 7p’ DIS"), which, according to our explanation, is to be preferred.
Ver. 28 In the path of righteousness is life, And the way of its path is immortality.
All the old versions to the Venet. give τὸκ instead of “OX, and are therefore under the necessity of extracting from 12] JN a meaning corresponding to this, εἰς θάνατον, in which they are followed by Hitzig: ‘a devious way leadeth to death.” But 372 (22) signifies step, and generally way and street (vid. at i. 15), not “devious way,” which is expressed, J udg. v. 6, by midpdpy minis. And that bye is anywhere punctuated thus in the sense of ON is previously improbable, because the Babylonian system of punctuation distinguishes the negative Ss with a short Pathach, and the prepositional 2x (Arab. ἐϊ4) with a short Chirek, from each other
(vid. Pinsker, Einl. p. xxii. f.); the punctuation 2 Sam. xiii. 16, Jer. li. ὃ, gives no support to the opinion that here 28 is vocalized thus in the sense of ON, and it is not to be thus corrected. Nothing is more natural than that the Chokma in its constant contrast between life and death makes a beginning of expressing the idea of the ἀθανασία (vid. p. 42), which Aquila erroneously read from the mo->s, Ps. xlviii. 15. It has been objected that for the formation of such negative substantives and noun-adjectives x) (6.0. SyoND, py-Nd) and not δὲ is used; but that $x also may be in close connection with a noun, 2 Sam. 1. 13 shows. There Sy-bx is equivalent to 20 ” ON, according to which it may also be explained in the passage before us, with Luther and all the older interpreters, who accepted bx in its negative signification: and on (the 3 governing) the way...is no death. The negative bx frequently stands as an intensifying of the objective x5; but why should the Chokma, which has already shown itself bold in the coining of new words, not apply itself to the formation of the idea of immortality?: the idol name ὌΝ is the result of a much greater linguistic boldness. It is certain that 58 is here not equivalent to δι; the Masora is therefore right in affirming that 12°) is written with He raphatum pro map- picato (vid. Kimchi, Michlol 31a, and in the Lez.), cf. 1 Sam. xx. 20, vid. Béttcher, ὃ 418. Thus: the way of their step is immortality, or much rather, since ἢ is not a fixed idea, but also denotes the going to a distance (1.6. the journey), the behaviour, the proceeding, the walk, etc.: the walking (the stepping over and passing through) of their way is immortality. Rich in synonyms of the way, the Hebrew style delights in connecting them with picturesque expressions; but 773 always means the way in general, which divides into mms or man) (Job vi. 18, Jer. xviii, 5), and consists of such (Isa. iii. 16). The distich is synonymous: on the path of righteousness (accentuate NP7S ΠΝ) is life meeting him who walks in it, and giving itself to him asa possession, and the walking in its path is immortality (cf. iil. 17, x. 28); so that to go in it and to be immortal, 1.6. to be delivered from death, to be exalted above it, is one and the same thing. If we compare with this, xiv. 32), it is obvious that the Chokma begins (vid. Psychol. p. 410) to break through the limits of this present life, and to announce a life beyond the reach of death. The proverb xii. 28 is so sublime, so weighty, that it manifestly forms a period and conclusion. This is confirmed from the following proverb, which begins like x. 1 (cf. 5), and anew stamps the collection as intended for youth: xiii. 1 A wise son is his father’s correction; But a scorner listens not to rebuke. The LXX., which the Syr. follows, translate Tids πανουργὸς ὑπήκοος πατρί, whence it is not to be concluded with Lagarde that they read 101) in the sense of a Mi. tolerativum; they correctly understood the text according to the Jewish rule of interpretation, “that which is wanting is to be supplied from the context.” The Targ. had already supplied YoY from 18, and is herein followed by Hitzig, as also by Glassius in the Philologia sacra. But such an ellipse is in the Hebr. style without an example, and would be comprehensible only in passionate, hasty discourse, but in a language in which the representation jfilius sapiens disciplinam patris audit numbers among the anomalies is not in general possible, and has not even its parallel in Tacitus, Ann. xili. 56: deesse nobis terra, in qua vivamus—in qua moriemur, non potest, because here the primary idea, which the one expression confirms, the other denies, and besides no particle, such as the } of this passage before us, stands between them. Bdttcher therefore maintains the falling out of the verb, and writes 3" before j2; but one says not Θ᾽ P32, but "DID pow, i. 8, iv. 1, xix. 27. Should not the clause, as it thus stands, give a sense complete in itself? But ἼΘΙ can hardly, with Schultens and Ewald, be taken as part. Hoph. of 1D’: one brought up by his father, for the usage of the language knows Dv only as part. Hoph. of 1b. Thus, as Jerome and the Venet. translate: a wise son is the correction of his father, 1.6. the product of the same, as also Fleischer explains, “ Attribution of the cause, the ground, as elsewhere of the effect.” But we call that which one has trained (vegetable or animal) his Zucht (Ξε παιδεία in the sense of παίδευμα). 'To the wise son (x. 1) who is indebted to the ax 1D1p (iv. 1), stands opposed the y (vid. 1. 22), the mocker at religion and virtue, who has no ear for M3, strong and stern words which awaken in him a wholesome fear (cf. xvii. 10, Jude 23: ἐν φόβῳ). Ver. 2 From the fruit of the mouth of a man he himself enjoys good; But the delight of the godless is violence.
2a = xii. 14a, where yao for Say), A man with a fruit-bringing mouth, himself enjoys also the blessing of his fruit-producing speech; his food (cf. βρῶμα, John iv. 34) is the good action in words, which in themselves are deeds, and are followed by deeds; this good action affords enjoyment not merely to others, but also to himself. Ewald and Bertheau attract 538° to 2b; so also does Fleischer: “ the violence which the 03 wish to do to others turns back upon themselves; they must eat it also, 1.6. bear its evil consequences.” The thought would then be like x. 6: os improborum obteget violentia, and “to eat violence” is parallel to “to drink (xxvi. 6) violence (injury).” But wherefore then the naming of the soul, of which elsewhere it is said that it hungers or satiates itself, but never simply (but cf. Luke xii. 19) that it eats? On the contrary, YB) means also appetitus, xxill. 2, and particularly wicked desire, Ps. xxvii. 12; here, as Ps. xxxv. 25, the object of this desire (Psychol. p. 202). Regarding 033, vid. above, p. 85. There are such as do injury in a cunning deceitful manner to their neighbour to their own advantage. While the former (the righteous) distributes to his neighbour from the inner impulse without having such a result in view, yet according to God’s direction he derives enjoyment himself therefrom: the desire of the latter goes to DDN, ἀδικία, and thus to the enjoyment of good unrighteously and violently seized. Ver. 3 He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his soul; He that openeth wide his lips, to him it is destruction.
3a is extended in xxi. 23 to a distich. Mouth and soul stand in closest interchangeable relation, for speech is the most immediate and continuous expression of the soul; thus whoever guards his mouth keeps his soul (the Venet., with excellent rendering of the synonym, ὁ τηρῶν τὸ στόμα ἑαυτοῦ φυλάσσει τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ), for he watches that no sinful vain thoughts rise up in his soul and come forth in words, and because he thus keeps his soul, z.e. himself, safe from the destructive consequences of the sins of the tongue. On the contrary, he who opens wide his lips, 1.6. cannot hold his mouth (LXX. ὁ δὲ προπετὴς χείλεσιν), but expresses unexamined and unconsidered whatever comes into his mind and gives delight, he is destruction to himself (supply sim), or to him it is destruction (supply nxt); both interpretations are possible, the parallelism brings nearer the former, and the parallel xviii. 7 brings nearer the latter. Pw’ means to spread (Schultens: diducere cum ruptura vel ad rupturam usque), here the lips, Pih. Ezek. xvi. 25, the legs, Arab. fashkh, farshkh; vid. regarding the R. wp, to extend, to spread out, Fleischer in the supplements to the A. Z. Ζ. 1843, col. 116. Regarding the Mishkle word HAMS, vid. under x. 14.
Ver. 4. The three proverbs (1-3) which refer to hearing and speaking are now followed by a fourth which, like vers. 2 and 3, speaks of the wa.