The Hebr. language is richer in synonyms of “the people” than the German. "8 (formed like the non-bibl. "2, water, and %j9, Seana from 3, to extend itself from within outward; cf. ix. 3, °B3, x. 13, 13) is, according to the usus log., like natio the people, as a mass swollen up from a common origin, and DY, 28a (from DY, to bind), the people as a confederation held together by a common law; DR? (from DN, to unite, bind together) is the mass (multitude) of the people, and is interchanged sometimes with 3, Gen. xxv. 23, and sometimes with Dy, ver. 28. In this pinta DDN stands indeed intentionally in the plur., but not 3, with the plur. of which 0%3, the idea of the non-Israelitish nations, too easily connects itself. The proverb means all nations without distinction, even Israel (cf. under Isa. i. 4) not excluded. History everywhere confirms the principle, that not the numerical, nor the warlike, nor the political, nor yet the intellectual and the so-called civilized greatness, 15 the true greatness of a nation, and determines the condition of its future as one of progress; but this is its true greatness, tlat in its private, public, and international life, MPI, 1.6. conduct directed by the will of God, according to the norm of moral rectitude, rules and prevails. Righteousness, good manners, and piety are the things which secure to a nation a place of honour, while, on the contrary, NNN, sin, viz. prevailing, and more favoured and fostered than peat against in the consciousness of the moral problem of the state, is a disgrace to the people, z.e. it lowers them before God, and also before men who do not judge superficially or perversely, and also actually brings them down. O01, to raise up, is to be understood after Isa. i. 2, cf, xxiii. 4, and is to be punctuated O91", with Munach of the penult., and the M»pyn-sign with the Tene of the last syllable. Ben-Naphtali punctuates thus: D9, In 346 all the artifices of interpretation (from Nachmani to Schultens) are to be rejected, which interpret 107 as the Venet. (ἔλεος δὲ λαῶν ἁμαρτία) in its predominant Hebrew signification. It has here, as at Lev. xx. 17 (but not Job vi. 14), the signification of the Syr.chesdho, opprobrium; the Targ. N1DN, or more frequently 835, as among Jewish interpreters, is Seidodtiaa by Chanan’el and Biicdiliicin “That this 707 is not foreign to the Mishle style, is seen from the fact that "DN, xxv. 10, is ied ἡ in the sense of the Syr.chasedh. The synon. Syr. chasam, invidere, obtrectare, shows that these verbal stems are formed from the R. ὉΠ, stringere, to strike. Already it is in some measure perceived how 727, Syr. chasadh, Arab. hasada, may acquire the meaning of violent love, and by the mediation of the jealousy which is connected with violent love, the signification of grudging, and thus of reproach and of envy; yet this is more manifest if one thinks of the root-signification stringere, in the meaning of loving, as referred to the subject, in the meanings of disgrace and envy, as from the subject directed to others. Ewald (§ 51c) compares 50 Π and 1D", Ethiop. chasra, in the sense οὗ carpere, and on the other side ΠΌΠ in the sense of “ to join;” but npn does not mean to join (vid. Ps. ii. 12), and instead of carpere, the idea more closely connected with the root is that of stringere, cf. stringere folia ex arboribus (Cxsar), and stringere (to diminish, to squander, strip) rem ingluvie (Horace, Sat. i. 2.8). The LXX. has here read 1Dn (xxviii. 22), diminution, decay, instead of 107 (shame); the quid pro quo is not bad, the Syr. accepts it, and the miseros facit of Jerome, and Luther’s verderben (destruction) corresponds with this phrase better than with the common traditional reading which Symmachus rightly renders by ὄνειδος. Ver. 35 The king’s favour is towards a prudent servant, And his wrath visits the base.
Regarding the contrasts a0 and Ὁ, vid. at x. 5; ef. xii. 4. The substantival clause 35a may mean: the king’s favour has (possesses)..., as well as: it is imparted to, an intelligent servant; the arrangement of the words is mere favourable to the latter rendering. In 350 the gender of the verb is determined by attraction after the pred., as is the case also at Gen. xxxi. 8, Job xv. 31, Ewald, ὃ 317¢. And “his wrath” is equivalent to is the object of it, cf. 226, xiii. 18, and in general, p. 282. The syntactical character of the clause does not permit the supplying of 2 from 35a. Luther’s translation proceeds only apparently from this erroneous supposition.
Chap. xv. 1-6. We take these verses together as forming a group which begins with a proverb regarding the good and evil which flows from the tongue, and closes with a proverb regarding the treasure in which blessing is found, and that in which no blessing is found.
Ver. 1 A soft answer turneth away wrath, And a bitter word stirreth up anger. In the second line, the common word for anger (8, from the breathing with the nostrils, xiv. 17) is purposely placed, but in the first, that which denotes anger in the highest degree (72M from on, cogn. bn, Arab. hamiya, to glow, like ΠΟ from 1): a mild, gentle word turns away the heat of anger (excandescentiam), puts it back, cf. xxv. 15. The Dagesh in 7 follows the rule of the pnt, 1.6. of the close connection of a word terminating with the accented >, A—, A— with the following word (Mfichlol 63D). The same is the meaning of the Latin proverb:
Frangitur tra gravis Quando est responsio suavis.
The tongue of the wise showeth great knowledge,
Observing the evil and the good.
The connection of the dual Ὁ} with the plur. of the adjective, which does not admit of a dual, is like vi. 17, cf. 18. But the first line is a sentence by itself, to which the second line gives a closer determination, as showing how the eyes of God are everywhere (cf. 2 Chron. xvi. 9, after Zech. iv. 10) abroad over the whole earth, viz. beholding with penetrating look the evil and the good (5¥, to hold to, to observe, cf. ἐπιβλέποντες, Sir. xxiii. 19), 1.6. examining men whether they are good or evil, and keeping them closely before His eyes, so that nothing escapes him. This universal inspection, this omniscience of God, has an alarming but also a comforting side. The proverb seeks first to warn, therefore it speaks first of the evil. Ver. 4 Gentleness of the tongue is a tree of life; But falseness in it is a wounding to the spirit.
Regarding S21, vid. at xii. 18, and regarding Hod, at xi. 3; this latter word we Fie with lakialien from ἢρΌ, to subvert, overthrow, but not in the sense of “ violence, asperitas, in as far as “ioe speech is like a stormy sea,” but of perversity, perversitas (Venet. λοξότης), as the contrast to truthfulness, rectitude, kindness. Gentleness characterizes the tongue when all that it says to a neighbour, whether it be instruction or correction, or warning or consolation, it says in a manner without rudeness, violence, or obtrusiveness, by which it finds the easiest and surest acceptance, because he feels the goodwill, the hearty sympathy, the humility of him who is conscious of his own imperfection. Such gentleness is a tree of life, whose fruits preserve life, heal the sick, and raise up the bowed down. Accordingly, M32 72¥ is to be understood of the effect which goes forth from perversity or falseness of the tongue upon others. Fleischer translates: asperitas autem in ea animum vulnerat, and remarks, “m2 12¥, abstr. pro concreto. The verb 13%, and the n. verbale 12% derived from it, may, in order to Sees the meaning tropical, govern the prep. 3, as the Arab.
kaser baklby, he has broken my heart (opp. Arab. ‘alien baklaby), ef. 1352, xxi. 29, vid. De Glossis Habichtianis, p. 18; yet it also occurs with the accus., Ps. Ixix. 21, and the corresponding gen. mn 732%, Isa. lxv. 14. In any case, the breaking (deep wounding) is not meant in regard to his own spirit, but to that of the neighbour. Rightly Luther: but a lying (tongue) makes heart-sorrow (elsewhere, a false one troubles the cheerful); Euchel: a false tongue is soul-wounding; and the translation of the year 1844: falsehood is a breach into the heart. Only for curiosity’s sake are two other intepretations of 4a and 4b mentioned: the means of safety to the tongue is the tree of life, 1.6. the Tura (Lvachin 156); and: per- versity suffers destruction by a breath of wind, after the proverb, Maw xyop mm my mps 12 vv 55, a breath of wind breaks a man who is puffed up* (which Meiri presents for choice, vid. also Rashi, who understands nv of the storm of judgment). The LXX. translates, in 40, a different text: ὁ δὲ συντηρῶν αὐτὴν πλησθήσεται πνεύματος; but the ™ yaw here supposed cannot mean “to be full of spirit,” but rather “to eat full of wind.’ Otherwise the Syr. and Targ.: and he who eateth of his own fruit is satisfied (Heb. yao” mp 228)),—an attempt to give to the phrase yaw a thought correct in point of language, but one against which we do not give up the Masoretic text. Ver. 5 A fool despiseth his father’s correction; But he that regardeth reproof is prudent. We may with equal correctness translate: he acts prudently (after 1 Sam. xxiii. 22); and, he is prudent (after xix. 25). We prefer, with Jerome, Venet., and Luther, the latter, against the LXX., Syr., and Targ., because, without a doubt, the D1) is so thought of at xix. 25: the contrast is more favourable to the former. [ is true that he who regardeth reproof is not only prudent, but also that he is prudent by means of observing it. With line first cf. i. 7 and i. 80, and with line second, xii. 1. Luther translates: the fool calumniates...; but of the meanings of abuse (properly pungere) and scorn, the second is perhaps here to be preferred. Ver. 6 The house of the righteous is a great treasure-chamber; But through the gain of the wicked comes trouble.
The constrast shows that 07 does not here mean force or might (LXX., Syr., Targ., Jerome, and Venet.), which generally this derivative of the verb ὉΠ never means, but store, fulness of possession, prosperity (Luther: in the house of the righteous are goods enough), in this sense (cf. xxvii. 24) placing itself, not with the Arab. hasuna, to be firm, fastened (Aram. —M», {DM), but with Arab. khazan, to deposit, to Jay up in granaries, whence our “ Magazin.” ἸΌΠῚ may indeed, like bon, have the meaning of riches, and jOM does actually mean, in the Jewish-Aram., to possess, and the Aphel }DNN, to take into possession (κρατεῖν); but the constant use of the noun ὉΠ in the sense of store, with the kindred idea of laying up, e.g. Jer. xx. 5, and of the Niph. j0M2, which means, Isa. xxill. 18, with T¥81, “to be magazined,” gives countenance to the idea that 19M goes back to the primary conception, recondere, and is to be distinguished from }iDN, PDn, and other derivatives after the fundamental conception. We may not interpret 3, with Fleischer, Bertheau, and Zéckler, as accus.: in the house (cirri vill, 2), nor prepositionally as chez =casa; but: “the house of the righteous is a great store,” equivalent to, the place of such. On the contrary, destruction comes by the gain of the wicked. It is impossible that N32 can have the house as the subject (Léwenstein), for ΓΞ is everywhere mas. ‘Therefore Abulwalid, followed by Kimchi and the Venet. (ὄλεθρος), οὐξέθος, ΤΠ) as subst.,
Vers. 7-17. A second series which begins with a proverb of the power of human speech, and closes with proverbs of the advantages and disadvantages of wealth.
Ver. 7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge; But the direction is wanting to the heart of fools. It is impossible that 1D-N? can be a second object. accus. dependent on 1 (dispergunt, not 7¥', xx. 28; φυλάσσουσι, as Symmachus translates): but the heart of fools is unrighteous (error or falsehood) (Hitzig after Isa. xvi. 6); for then why were the lips of the wise and the heart of the fools mentioned? j27x} also does not mean οὐχ οὕτως (an old Greek anonymous translation, Jerome, Targ., Venet., Luther): the heart of the fool is quite different from the heart of the wise man, which spreads abroad knowledge
(Zockler), for it is not heart and heart, but lip and heart, that are placed opposite to each other. Better the LXX. οὐκ ἀσφαλεῖς, and yet better the Syr. lo kinin (not right, sure). We have seen, at xi. 19, that 13. as a participial adj. means standing = being, continuing, or also standing erect=right, ze. rightly directed, or having the right direction; P18} means there conducting oneself rightly, and thus genuine rectitude. What, after 7a, is more appropriate than to say of the heart of the fool, that it wants the receptivity for knowledge which the lips of the wise scatter abroad? The heart of the fool is not right, it has not the right direction, is crooked and perverse, has no mind for wisdom; and that which proceeds from the wise, therefore, finds with him neither estimation nor acceptance. Ver. & The sacrifice of the godless is an abhorrence to Jahve; But the prayer of the upright is His delight.
Although the same is true of the prayer of the godless that is here said of their sacrifice, and of the sacrifice of the righteous that is here said of their prayer (vid. xxviii. 9, and cf. Ps. iv. 6 with Ps. XXvil. 6), yet it is not by accident that here (line first =xxi. 27) the sacrifice is ascribed to the godless and the prayer to the upright. The sacrifice, as a material and legally-required performance, is much more related to dead works than prayer freely completing itself in the word, the most direct expression of the personality, which, although not commanded by the law, because natural to men, as such is yet the soul of all sacrifices; and the Chokma, like the Psalms and Prophets, in view of the ceremonial service which had become formal and dead in the opus operatum, is to such a degree penetrated by the knowledge of the incongruity of the offering up of animals and of plants, with the object in view, that a proverb like “ the sacrifice of the righteous is pleasing to God” never anywhere occurs; and if it did occur without being expressly and unavoidably referred to the legal sacrifice, it would have to be understood rather after Ps. li. 18f. than Ps. 11. 20 ἔν rather after 1 Sam. xv. 22 than after Ps. Ixvi. 18-15. 2t, which, when it is distinguished from ney, means (cf, vii. 14) the sacrifice only in part coming to the altar, for the most part applied to a sacrificial feast, is here the common name for the bloody, and, per synecdochen, generally the legally-appointed sacrifice, consisting in external offering. The ps1, Lev. i. 3, used in the Téra of sacrifices, is here, as at Ps. xix. 15, transferred to prayer. The fundamental idea of the proverb is, that sacrifices well-pleasing to God, prayers acceptable to God (that are heard, xv. 29), depend on the relations in which the heart and life of the man stand to God. Ver. 9. Another proverb with the key-word niyin: An abomination to Jahve is the way of the godless: But He loveth him who searcheth after righteousness. The manner and rule of life is called the way. 7 is the heightening of 475, xxi. 21, and can be used independently in bonam, as well as in malam partem (xi. 19, cf. xiii. 21). Regarding the form 278}, vid. Fleischer in Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitsch. xv. 382. Ver. 10 Sharp correction is for him who forsaketh the way; Whoever hateth instruction shall die. The way, thus absolute, is the God-pleasing right way (ii. 13), the forsaking of which is visited with the punishment of death, because it is that which leadeth unto life (x. 17). And that which comes upon them who leave it is called ¥7 1012, castigatio dura, as much as to say that whoever does not welcome instruction, whoever rejects it, must at last receive it against his will in the form of peremptory punishment. The sharp correction (cf. Isa. xxvili. 28, 195) is just the death under which he falls who accepts of no instruction (v. 23), temporal death, but that as a token of wrath which it is not for the righteous (xiv. 32). Ver. 11 The underworld [Sheol] and the abyss are before Jahve; But how much more the hearts of the children of men!
1 In Rabbin. this concluding form is called 19h) S> (light and heavy over against one another), and jy (judgment, viz. from premisses, thus conclusion), κατ᾽ ἐξ. Instead of the biblical »5 5x, the latter form of the language has pwned (all speaks for it that it is so), mp2) 71D nnw-by (so much the more), ἢ) ix, or also WM bp (a minori ad majus = quanto magis); vid. the Hebr. Rimerbrief, p. 14.
Him, and Abaddon has no covering;” since 72x is the general name of the underworld, including the grave, i.e. the inner place of the earth which receives the body of the dead, as the kingdom of the dead, lying deeper, does the soul. But where, as here and at xxvii. 10, xv and pois stand together, they are related to each other, as ἅδης and taprapos or ἄβυσσος, Rev. ix. 11: p38 is the lowest hell, the place of deepest descent, of uttermost destruction. The conclusion which is drawn in the proverb proceeds from the supposition that in the region of creation there is nothing more separated, and by a wide distance, from God, than the depth, and especially the undermost depth, of the realm of the dead. If now God has this region in its whole compass wide open before Him, if it 15 visible and thoroughly cognisable by Him (733, acc. adv.: in conspectu, from 33, eminere, conspicuum esse),—for He is also present in the underworld, Ps. cxxxix. 8,—then much more will the hearts of the children of men be open, the inward thoughts of men living and acting on the earth being known already from their expressions. Man sees through man, and also himself, never perfectly; but the Lord can try the heart and prove the reins, Jer. xvii. 10. What that means this proverb gives us to understand, for it places over against the hearts of men nothing less than the depths of the underworld in eternity.
Ver. 12 The scorner liketh not that one reprove him, To wise men he will not go.
The inf. absol., abruptly denoting the action, may take the place of the object, as here (cf. Job ix. 18, Isa. xlii. 24), as well as of the subject (xxv. 27, Job vi. 25). Thus min is (ix. 7) construed with the dat. obj. Regarding the probable conclusion which presents itself from passages such as xv. 12 and xiii. 20, as to the study of wisdom in Israel, vid. p. 39. Instead of -&, we read, xiii. 20 (cf. xxii. 24), “M8; for ΠΝ N22 means to have intercourse with one, to go a journey with one (Mal. ii. 6, cf. Gen. v. 24, but not 2 Sam. xv. 22, where we are to translate with Keil), according to which the LXX. has here peta δὲ σοφῶν οὐχ ὁμιλήσει. The mocker of religion and of virtue shuns the circle of the wise, for he loves not to have his treatment of that which is holy reproved, nor to be convicted of his sin against truth; he prefers the society where his frivolity finds approbation and a response.
Ver. 13 A joyful heart maketh the countenance cheerful; But in sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. The expression of the countenance, as well as the spiritual habitus of a man, is conditioned by the state of the heart. A joyful heart maketh the countenance 2», which means friendly, but here happy-looking = cheerful (for 21» is the most general designation of that which makes an impression which is pleasant to the senses or to the mind); on the contrary, with sorrow of heart (N28, constr. of Nis¥, x. 10, as NNOO=NNwn, from AXBN) there is connected a stricken, broken, downcast heart; the spiritual functions of the man are paralyzed; self-confidence, without which energetic action is impossible, is shattered; he appears discouraged, whereby 1 is thought of as the power of self-consciousness and of self-determination, but ab. as our “ Gemiit” [animus], as the oneness of thinking and willing, and thus as the seat of determination, which decides the intellectual-corporeal life-expression of the man, or without being able to be wholly restrained, communicates itself to them. The 3 of ΠΩΣ) is, as xv. 16 f., xvi. 8, xvii. 1, meant in the force of being together or along with, so that ™ ΠΕ) do not need to be taken separate from each other as subject and predicate: the sense of the noun-clause is in the 3, as e.g. also vii. 23 (it is about his life, 1.6. it concerns his life). Elsewhere the crushed spirit, like the broken heart, is equivalent to the heart despairing in itself and prepared for grace. ‘The heart with a more clouded mien may be well, for sorrow has in it a healing power (Eccles. vii. 3). But here the matter is the general psychological truth, that the corporeal and spiritual life of man has its regulator in the heart, and that the condition of the heart leaves its stamp on the appearance and on the activity of the man. The translation of the ΠΝ) mn by “ oppressed breath” (Umbreit, Hitzig) is impossible; the breath cannot be spoken of as broken. Ver. 14 The heart of the understanding seeketh after knowledge, And the mouth of fools practiseth folly.
Luther interprets ny7 as metaphor. for to govern, but with such ethical conceptions it is metaphor. for to be urgently circumspect about anything (vid. xiii. 20), like Arab. ra’y and γ᾽ ἀψέ, intentional, careful, concern about anything. No right translation can be made of the Chethib 5, which Schultens, Hitzig, Ewald, and Zockler prefer; the predicate can go before the ‘28, after the Semitic rule in the fem. of the sing., 2 Sam. x. 9, cf. Job xvi. 16,
Chethib, but cannot follow in the masc. of the sing.; besides, the operations of his look and aspect are ascribed to his face, but not spiritual functions as here, much more to the mouth, 1.6. to the spirit speaking through it. Tie heart is within a man, and the mouth without; and while the former gives and takes, the latter is always only giving out. In xviii. 15, where a synonymous distich is formed from the antithetic distich, the ear, as hearing, is mentioned along with the heart as appropriating. i12 is not an adj., but is gen., like poy, 28a (opp. °5}). O3n, xvi. 23. The φιλοσοφία of the understanding is placed over against the μωρολογία of the fools. The LXX. translates καρδία ὀρθὴ ζητεῖ αἴσθησιν (cf. xiv. 10, καρδία ἀνδρὸς αἰσθητική); it uses this word after the Hellenistic usus log. for nyt, of experimental knowledge. Ver. 15 All the days of the afflicted are evil; But he whois of a joyful heart hath a perpetual feast. Regarding "29 (the afflicted), vid. 216. They are so called on whom a misfortune, or several of them, press externally or internally. If such an one is surrounded by ever so many blessings, yet is his life day by day a sad one, because with each new day the feeling of his woe which oppresses him renews itself; whoever, on the contrary, is of joyful heart (gen. connection as xi. 13, xii. 8), such an one (his life) is always a feast, a banquet (not ΠΡΟ, as it may be also pointed, but ΠΡΦ and TN thus adv., for it is never adj.; the post-bib. usage is ἢ ὙΠ for Ton niriy), Hitzig (and also Zéckler) renders 15): And (the days) of one who is of a joyful heart are... Others supply δ (cf. xxvii. 7b), but our rendering does not need that. We have here again an example of that attribution (Arab. isnéd) in which that which is attributed (musnad) is a condition (hal) of a logical subject (the musnad iléhi), and thus he who speaks has this, not in itself, but in the sense of the condition; the inwardly cheerful is feasts evermore, 1.6. the condition of such an one is like a continual festival. The true and real happiness of a man is thus defined, not by external things, but by the state of the heart, in which, in spite of the apparently prosperous condition, a secret sorrow may gnaw, and which, in spite of an externally sorrowful state, may be at peace, and be joyfully confident in God. Ver. 16 Better is little with the fear of Jahve, Than great store and trouble therewith.
mom) (elsewhere of wild, confused disorder, extreme discord) is meant of store and treasure, Ps. xxxix. 7 shows: it is restless, covetous care and trouble, as the contrast of the quietness and contentment proceeding from the fear of God, the noisy, wild, stormy running and hunting about of the slave of mammon. Theodotion translates the word here, as Aquila and Symmachus elsewhere, by words which correspond (φαγέδαινα = φάγαινα or axoptacia) with the Syr. snp’, greed or insatiability. Ver. 17 Better a dish of cabbage, and love with it, Than a fatted ox together with hatred. With 13 is here interchanged ow, which, used both of things and of persons, means to be there along with something. Both have the Dag. forte conj., cf. to the contrary, Deut. xxx. 20, Mic. i. 11, Deut. xi. 22; the punctuation varies, if the first of the two words is an. actions ending in 1—, The dish (portion) is called HMx, which the LX-X. and other Greek versions render by ἕενισμός, entertainment, and thus understand it of that which is set before a guest, perhaps rightly so, for the Arab. drrakh (to date, to determine), to which it is compared by Gesenius and Dietrich, is equivalent to warrh, a denom. of the name of the moon. Love and hatred are, according to circumstances, the disposition of the host, or of the participant, the spirit of the family: Cum dat oluscula mensa minuscula pace quietd, Ne pete grandia lautaque prandia lite repleta. Two proverbs of two different classes of men, each second line of which terminates with a catchword having a similar sound (77s), ms).
Ver. 18 A passionate man stirreth up strife, And one who is slow to anger allayeth contention.
Sxvill. 25a and xxix. 22a are variations of the first line of this proverb. The Pch. 773 occurs only these three times in the phrase fim ma, R. 73, to grind, thus to strike, to irritate, cogn. to (but of a different root from) the verb 77\¥, to excite, x. 12, and 171, to set on fire, xxvi. 21, cf. new, vi. 14. Regarding 791, vid. xv. 1; we eall such a man a “ hot-head;” but the biblical conception nowhere (except in the Book of Daniel) places the head in connection with spiritual-psychical events (Psychologie, p. 254). Regarding 78 Ἐξ, vid. xiv. 29; the LXX. (which contains a translation of this proverb, and after it of a variation) translates μακρόθυμος δὲ καὶ τὴν μέλλουσαν καταπρᾳύνει, i.e. (as the Syr. render it) he suppresses the strife in its origin, so that it does not break out. But both are true: that he who is slow to anger, who does not thus easily permit himself to become angry, allayeth the strife which one enters into with him, or into which he is drawn, and that he prevents the strife, for he places over against provoking, injurious conduct, patient gentleness (N21, Eccles. x. 4). Ver. 19 The way of the slothful is as hedged with thorns; But the path of the righteous is paved.
Hitzig misses the contrast between OMY (slothful) and O° (upright), and instead of the slothful reads 7, the tyrannical. But is then the slothful ποῖ The contrast is indeed not that of contradiction, but the slothful is one who does not act uprightly, a man who fails to fulfil the duty of labour common to man, and of his own special calling. The way of such an one is PJ N33, like a fencing with thorns (from pin, R. 3n, to be pointed, sharp, distinguished from Arab. hadk, to surround, and in the meaning to fix with the look, denom. of khadakt, the apple of the eye), so that he goes not forwards, and sees hindrances and difficulties everywhere, which frighten him back, excusing his shunning his work, his remissness of will, and his doing nothing; on the contrary, the path of those who wait truly and honestly on their calling, and prosecute their aim, is raised up like a skilfully made street, so that unhindered and quickly they go forward (nexD, R. 5p, aggerare, cf. Jer. xviii. 15 with Isa. xlix. 11, and iv. 8, 2b2D, which was still in use in the common language of Palestine in the second cent., Rosch haschana, 265).
This collection of Solomonic proverbs began, x. 1, with a proverb having reference to the observance of the fourth commandment,’ and a second chief section, xiii. 1, began in the same way. Here a proverb of the same kind designates the beginning of a third chief section. That the editor was aware of this is shown by the homogeneity of the proverbs, xv. 19, xii. 28, which form the conclusion of the first and second sections. We place together first in this new section, vers. 20-23, in which (with the exception of ver. 25) the now [maketh glad] of the first (x. 1) is continued.
Ver. 20 A wise son maketh a glad father, And a fool of a man despiseth his mother.
Line first =x.1. The gen. connection of DIN Sips (here and at xxi. 20) is not superlative [the most foolish of men |, but like 815 DIN, Gen. xvi. 12; the latter: a man of the wild ass kind; the former: a man of the fool kind, who is the exemplar of such a sort among men. Piety acting in willing subordination is wisdom, and the contrary exceeding folly. Ver. 21 Folly is joy to him that is devoid of understanding; But a man of understanding goeth straight forward. Regarding ὩΡΓ ΡΠ, vid. at vi. 32 (cf. libib, which in the Samaritan means “dearly beloved,” in Syr. “ courageous,” in Arab. and Aethiop. cordatus); "RIN WX, x. 23, and WW, with the accus. of the way, here of the going, iii. 6 (but not xi. 5, where the going itself is not the subject). In consequence of the contrast, the meaning of 21a is different from that of x. 23, according to which sin is to the fool as the sport of achild. Here nia is folly and buffoonery, drawing aside in every kind of way from the direct path of that which is good, and especially from the path of one’s duty. This gives joy to the fool; he is thereby drawn away from the earnest and faithful performance of the duties of his calling, and thus wastes time and strength; while, on the contrary, a man of understanding, who perceives and rejects the vanity and unworthiness of such trifling and such nonsense, keeps the straight direction of his going, 1.6. without being drawn aside or kept back, goes straight forward, 1.6. true to duty, prosecutes the end of his calling. ria) is accus., like xxx. 29, Mic. vi. 8. Ver. 22 A breaking of plans where no counsel is; But where many counsellors are they come to pass.
On the other side it is also true according to the proverbs, “ so viel Kopfe so viel Sinne” [quot homines, tot sententie], and “ viel Rath ist Unrath” [ne quid nimis], and the like. But it cannot become a rule of morals not to accept of counsel that we may not go astray; on the contrary, it is and remains arule of morals: not stubbornly to follow one’s own heart (head), and not obstinately to carry out one’s own will, and not in the darkness of wisdom to regard one’s own plans as unimproveable, and not needing to be examined; but to listen to the counsel of intelligent and honest friends, and, especially where weighty matters are in hand, not affecting one’s own person, but the common good, not to listen merely to one counsellor, but to many. Not merely the organism of the modern state, but also of old the Mosaic arrangement of the Israelitish community, with its representative organization, its courts and councils, rested on the acknowledged justice and importance of the saying uttered in xi. 14, and here generalized. 150, infin. abs. Hiph. of 178, to break, with the accus. following, stands here, like 327, xii. 7, instead of the finite: the thoughts come to a fracture (failure), irrita fiunt consilia. “ip (= δ᾽, cf. ἼΘΙ), Ps. ii. 2) means properly the being brought close together for the purpose of secret communication and counsel (cf. Arab. sdwada, to press close together=to walk with one privately). The LXX.: their plans are unexecuted, of μὴ τιμῶντες συνέδρια, literally Symmachus, dvacxeddfovrar λογισμοὶ μὴ ὄντος συμβου- λίου. OPA has, after Jer. iv. 14, li. 29, ΓΙ ΟΠ as subject. The LXX. (besides perverting 392 [by a multitude] into 252 [ἐν καρδίαις), the Syr., and Targ. introduce 7¥Y (xix. 21) as subject. Ver. 23 A man has joy by the right answer of his mouth; And a word in its season, how fair is it! If we translate 7399 only by “answer,” then 23a sounds as a praise of self-complaisance; but it is used of true correspondence (xxix. 19), of fit reply (Job xxxii. 3, 5), of appropriate answer (cf. 28a, xvi. 1). It has happened to one in his reply to hit the nail on its head, and he has joy from that (2 772” after 3 ND’, e.g. xxiii. 24), and with right; for the reply does not always succeed. A reply like this, which, according to circumstances, stops the mouth or bringeth a kiss (xxiv. 26), is a fortunate throw, is a gift from above. The synonymous parallel line measures that which is appropriate, not to that which is to be answered, but from a general point of view as to its seasonableness; NY (= NY from 1Y*) is here “the ethically right, becoming time, determined by the laws of wisdom (moral)” (vid. Orelli, Synonyma der Zeit u. Ewigkeit, p- 48), cf. IBRD (translated by Luther “in its time”), xxv. 11. With rion, cf. xvi. 16; both ideas lie in it: that such a word is in itself well-conditioned and successful, and also that it is welcome, agreeable, and of beneficial influence. Four proverbs of fundamentally different doctrines: Ver. 24 The man of understanding goeth upwards on a way of life, To depart from hell beneath.
The way of life is one, v. 6, Ps. xvi. 11 (where, notwithstanding the want of the article, the idea is logically determined), although in itself forming a plurality of mms, ii. 19. “ A way of life,’ in the translation, is equivalent to a way which is a way of life.
πόνο, upwards (as Eccles. iii. 21, where, in the doubtful question whether the spirit of a man at his death goes upwards, there yet lies the knowledge of the alternative), belongs, as the parallel nan Sint shows, to ὉΠ M& as virtual adj.: a way of life which leads upwards. And the? of awn is that of possession, but not as of quiet possession (such belongs to him), but as personal activity, as in 771, he has a journey = he makes ἃ journey, finds himself on a journey, 1 Kings xviii. 27; for Ὁ ye is not merely, as “39, xill. 14, xiv. 27, the expression of the end and consequence, but of the subjective object, z.e. the intention, and thus supposes an activity corresponding to this intention. The O. T. reveals heaven, i.e. the state of the revelation of God in glory, yet not as the abode of saved men; the way of the dying leads, according to the O. T. representation, downwards into Shedl; but the translations of Enoch and Elijah are facts which, establishing the possibility of an exception, break through the dark monotony of that representation, and, as among the Greeks the mysteries encouraged ἡδυστέρας ἐλπίδας, so in Israel the Chokma appears pointing the possessor of wisdom upwards, and begins to shed light on the darkness of Shedl by the new great thoughts of a life of immortality, thus of a ζωὴ αἰώνιος (xii. 28) (Psychologie, p. 407 ff.), now for the first time becoming prominent, but only as a foreboding and an enigma. The idea of the Shedl opens the way for a change: the gathering place of all the living on this side begins to be the place of punishment for the godless (vii. 27, ix. 18); the way leading upwards, εἰς τὴν ζωὴν, and that leading downwards, eis τὴν ἀπώλειαν (Matt. vii. 13 f.), come into direct contrast.
Ver. 25 The house of the proud Jahve rooteth out, And He establisheth the landmark of the widow.
The power unnamed in 3NB*, ii. 22 (cf. xiv. 11a), is here named mim |B’ (thus to be pointed with Mercha and Pusek following). 33° is the abbreviated fut. form which the elevated style, e.g. Deut. Xxxll. 8, uses also as indic.,—a syntactical circumstance which renders Hitzig’s correction 28% superfluous. It is the border of the land-possession of the widows, removed by the Ὁ (LXX. ὑβριστῶν), that is here meant. The possession of land in Israel was secured by severe punishment inflicted on him who removed the “landmark” (Deut. xix. 14, xxvii. 17), and the Chokma (xxii. 28; Job xxiv. 2) as well as the prophets (e.g. Hos. v. 10)
inculcate the inviolability of the borders of the possession, as the guardian of which Jahve here Himself appears. Ver 26 An abomination to Jahve are evil thoughts; But gracious words are to Him pure. Not personally (Luther: the plans of the wicked) but neutrally is 19 here meant as at ii. 14, and in 7 NW, vi. 24 (cf. Pers. merdi niku, man of good = good man), vid. Friedr. Philippi’s Status Constr. p- 121. Thoughts which are of a bad kind and of a bad tendency, particularly (what the parallel member brings near) of a bad disposition and design against others, are an abomination to God; but, on the contrary, pure, viz. in His eyes, which cannot look upon iniquity (Hab. i. 13), are the OY3-"78, words of compassion and of friendship toward men, which are (after 26a) the expression of such thoughts, thus sincere, benevolent words, the influence of which on the soul and body of him to whom they refer is described, xvi. 24. The Syr., Targ., Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Venet. recognise in 03 the pred., while, on the contrary, the LXX., Jerome, and Luther (who finally decided for the translation, “ but the pure speak comfortably”) regard it as subject. But that would be an attribution which exceeds the measure of possibility, and for which 0% 8 or 125 must be used; also the parallelism requires that nn correspond with 'n nayin. Hence also the reference of ony) to the judgment of God, which is determined after the motive of pure untainted law; that which proceeds from such, that and that only, is pure, pure in His sight, and thus also pure in itself. Ver. 27 Whoever does service to [servit] avarice troubleth his own house; But he that hateth gifts shall live. Regarding Y¥3 Y¥3, vid. at i. 19, and regarding in’3 72), xi. 29, where it is subject, but here object.; xxviii. 16) is a variation of 27b. nian) are here gifts in the sense of Eccles. vii. 7, which pervert judgment, and cause respect of persons. The LXX. from this point mingles together a series of proverbs with those of the following chapter. Two proverbs regarding the righteous and the wicked: Ver. 28 The heart of the righteous considereth how to answer right, And the mouth of the godless poureth forth evil. Instead of ni3y2, the LXX. (Syr. and Targ.) imagines MinvK, πίστεις; Jerome translates, but falsely, obedientiam (from ΠΝ, to bend oneself); Metri thinks on 292, wormwood, for the heart of the righteous revolves in itself the misery and the vanity of this present life; Hitzig corrects this verse as he does the three preceding: the heart of the righteous thinks on NY, a plur. of verb may, which, except in this correction, does not exist. The proverb, as it stands, is, in fineness of expression and sharpness of the contrast, raised above such manglings. Instead of the righteous, the wise might be named, and instead of the godless, fools (cf. 20); but the poet places the proverb here under the point of view of duty to neighbours, It is the characteristic of the righteous that he does not give the reins to his tongue; but as Luther has translated: the heart of the righteous considers [tichtet from dictare, frequently to speak, here carefully to think over] what is to be answered, or rather, since ἘΡΩ͂ is not used, he thinks thereupon to answer rightly, for that the word nay is used in this pregnant sense is seen from 23a. The godless, on the contrary, are just as rash with their mouth as the righteous are of a thoughtful heart: their mouth sputters forth (efutit) evil, for they do not first lay to heart the question what may be right and just in the case that has arisen. Ver. 29 Jahve is far from the godless; But the prayer of the righteous He heareth. Line second is a variation of 8b. God is far from the godless, viz. as Polychronius remarks, non spatii intercapedine, sed sententic diversitate; more correctly: as to His gracious presence—OiN0 yon, He has withdrawn Himself from them, Hos. x. 6, so that if they pray, their prayer reaches not to Him. The prayer of the righteous, on the contrary, He hears, He is graciously near to them, they have access to Him, He listens to their petitions; and if they are not always fulfilled according to their word, yet they are not without an answer (Ps. cxlv. 18). Two proverbs regarding the eye and the ear: Ver. 30 The light of the eye rejoiceth the heart, And a good message maketh the bones fat.
Hitzig corrects also here: O°) AN, that which is seen with the eyes, viz. after long desire; and certainly D°}) AND can mean not only that which the eyes see (Isa. xi. 3), but also this, that the eyes do see. But is it true what Hitzig says in justification of his correction, that x» never means light, or ray, or brightness, but lamp (dwornp)? It is true, indeed, that oy WN cannot mean a cheerful sight (Luther) in an objective sense (LXX. θεωρῶν
ὀφθαλμὸς καλά), as a verdant garden or a stream flowing through a landscape (Rashi), for that would be 0) PND AND, and “ brightness which the eyes see” (Bertheau); the genitive connection certainly does not mean: the WN is not the light from without presenting itself to the eyes, but, like oy Wx (Ps. xxxviii. 11) and similar expressions, the light of the eye itself [bright or joyous eyes]. But 10 does not mean alone the body of light, but also the illumination, Ex. xxxv. 14 and elsewhere, not only that which (6, τὸ gives light, but also this, that (ὅτι) light arises and is present, so that we might translate it here as at Ps. xc. 8, either the brightness, or that which gives light. But the clear brightness of one’s own eye cannot be meant, for then that were as much as to say that it is the effect, not that it is the cause, of a happy heart, but the brightness of the eyes of others that meet us. That this gladdens the heart of him who has a sight of it is evident, without any interchanging relation of the joy-beaming countenance, for it is indeed heart-gladdening to a man, to whom selfishness has not made the χαίρειν μετὰ χαιρόντων impossible, to see a countenance right joyful in truth. Butin connection with xvi. 15, it lies nearer to think on a love-beaming countenance, a countenance on which joyful love to us mirrors itself, and which reflects itself in our heart, communicating this sense of gladness. The ancient Jewish interpreters understand Oy Nd of the enlightening of the eye of the mind, according to which Euchel translates: ‘clear intelligence;” but Rashi has remarked that that is not the explanation of the words, but the Midrash. That, in line second of this synonymous distich, 1210 ΠΡΟ does not mean alloquium humanum (ΕἸ.), nor a good report which one hears of himself, but a good message, is confirmed by xxv. 25; Προ as neut. part. pass. may mean that which is heard, but the comparison of Mw, Ayaw, stamps it as an abstract formation like nDN3, ΠΡῚ) (nesta), according to which the LXX. translates it by ἀκοή (in this passage by φήμη). Regarding [Ὁ Π, richly to satisfy, or to refresh, a favourite expression in the Mishle, vid. at xi. 25, xii. 4. Ver. 81 An ear which heareth the doctrine of life Keeps itself in the circle of the wise.
As, vi. 33, 1D1) NINN means instructions aiming at discipline, so here ὉΠ ΠΣ ΓΙ means instructions which have life as their end, t.e. as showing how one may attain unto true life; Hitzig’s Dn, for on, is a fancy. Is now the meaning this, that the ear which willingly hears and receives such doctrine of life will eome to dwell among the wise,.6. that such an one (for Ἰδὲ is synecdoche partis pro persona, as Job xxix. 11) will have his residence among wise men, as being one of them, inter eos sedem firmam habebit tisque annumerabitur (F'l.)? By such a rendering, one is surprised at the harshness of the synecdoche, as well as at the circumstantiality of the expression (cf. xiii. 20, 030°). On the contrary, this corresponds with the thought that one who willingly permits to be said to him what he must do and suffer in order that he may be a partaker of life, on this account remains most gladly in the circle of the wise, and there has his appropriate place. The “ passing the night” (2, cogn. m9, Syr. Targ. ma, Arab. Lat) is also frequently elsewhere the designation of prolonged stay, e.g. Isa. i. 21. 37?2 is here different in signification from that it had in xiv. 23, where it meant “in the heart.” In the LXX. this proverb is wanting. The other Greek translations have οὖς ἀκοῦον ἐλέγχους ζωῆς ἐν μέσῳ σοφῶν αὐλισθήσεται. Similarly the Syr., Targ., Jerome, Venet., and Luther, admitting both renderings, but, since they render in the fut., bringing nearer the idea of prediction (Midrash: pan nave2 aw) nn) than of description of character. Two proverbs with the catchword 3: Ver. 32 He that refuseth correction lightly values his soul; But he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. Regarding ἼΘ᾽ yui5, vid. xiii. 18, cf. i. 25, and ᾿Ξ) DNID, viii. 36. WD) contains more than the later expression iD¥Y, self; it is equivalent to "7 (Job ix. 21), for the w5) is the bond of union between the intellectual and the corporeal life. The despising of the soul is then the neglecting, endangering, exposing of the life; in a word, it is suicide (106). xix. 8a is a variation derived from this distich: “δ who gains understanding loves his soul,” according to which the LXX. translate here ἀγαπᾷ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ. 2» the Midrash explains by 253 anny moan; but the correct view is, that 30 is not thought of as a formal power, but as operative and carried into effect in conformity with its destination. Ver. 33 The fear of Jahve is a discipline to wisdom, And before honour is humility.
We may regard ‘17 N71 (the fear of Jahve) also as pred. here. The fear of Jahve is an educational maxim, and the end of education of the Chokma; but the phrase may also be the subject, and by such a rendering Luther’s parallelism lies nearer: “ The fear of the Lord is discipline to wisdom;” the fear of God, viz. continually exercised and tried, is the right school of wisdom, and humility is the right way to honour. Similar is the connection 1D% Dae, discipline binds understanding to itself as its consequence, i. 3. Line second repeats itself, xviii. 12, Pride comes before the fall.” Luther’s “ And ere one comes to μρθιμ he must previously suffer,” renders Ὁ) rather than ΠΣ, But the Syr. reverses the idea: the honour of the humble goeth before him, as also one of the anonymous Greek versions: προπορεύεται δὲ ταπεινοῖς δόξα. But the δόξα comes, as the above proverb expresses it, afterwards. The way to the height lies through the depth, the depth of humility under the hand of God, and, as my expresses, of self-humiliation. Four proverbs of God, the disposer of all things: Chap. xvi. 1 Man’s are the counsels of the heart; But the answer of the tongue cometh from Jahve.
Gesen., Ewald, and Bertheau incorrectly understand 10 of hearing, i.e. of a favourable response to what the tongue wishes; la speaks not of wishes, and the gen. after ΠΩ) (answer) is, as at xv. 23, Mic ili. 7, and also here, by virtue of the parallelism, the gen. subject. xv. 23 leads to the right sense, according to which a good answer is joy to him to whom it refers: it does not always happen to one to find the fitting and effective expression for that which he has in his mind; itis, as this cog. proverb expresses it, a gift from above (δοθή- σεται, Matt. x. 19). But now, since 72y aha means answering, nor yet in general an expression (Euchel) or report (Lowenstein), and the meaning of the word at 4a is not here in question, one has to think of him whom the proverb has in view as one who has to give a reason, to give information, or generally—since ΠῚ}, like ἀμείβεσθαι, is not confined to the interchange of words—to solve a problem, and that such an one as requires reflection. The scheme (project, premeditation) which he in his heart contrives, is here described as IoD WN, from 7Y, to arrange, to place together, metaphorically of the reflection, ze. the consideration analyzing and putting a matter in order. These reflections, seeking at one time in one direction, and at another in another, the solution of the question, the unfolding of the problem, are the business of men; but the answer which finally the tongue gives, and which here, in conformity with the pregnant sense of Myo (vid. at xv. 23, 28), will be regarded as right, appropriate, effective, thus generally the satisfying reply to the demand placed before him, is from God. It is a matter of experience which the preacher, the public speaker, the author, and every man to whom his calling or circumstances present a weighty, difficult theme, can attest. As the thoughts pursue one another in the mind, attempts are made, and again abandoned; the state of the heart is somewhat like that of chaos before the creation. But when, finally, the right thought and the right utterance for it are found, that which is found appears to us, not as if self-discovered, but as a gift; we regard it with the feeling that a higher power has influenced our thoughts and imaginings; the confession by us, ἡ ἱκανότης ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ (2 Cor. iii. 5), in so far as we believe in a living God, is inevitable. Ver. 2 Every way of a man is pure in his own eyes; But a weigher of the spirits is Jahve.
Variations of this verse are xxi. 2, where 1 for ἢ] (according to the root-meaning: pricking in the eyes, z.e. shining clear, then: without spot, pure, vid. Fleischer in Levy’s Chald. Worterbuch, i. 424), niad for nin, and WWD for ‘277773, whereupon here without synallage (for $3 means the totality), the singular of the pred. follows, as Isa. Ixiv. 10, Ezek. xxxi. 15. For the rest, cf. with 2a, xiv. 12, where, instead of the subj. ‘3, is used DBD, and with 26, xxiv. 12, where God is described by nia? jah, The verb j2F is a secondary formation from p> (vid. Hupfeld on Ps. v. 7), like 2h from Arab. tyakn (to be fast, sure), the former through the medium of the reflex. #21277, the latter of the reflex. Arab. ditkn; 2h means to regulate (from regula, a rule), to measure off, to weigh, here not to bring into a condition right according to rule (Theodotion, éSpafwy, stabiliens, Syr. Targ. ΠΟ, Venet. καταρ- ritev; Luther, “but the Lord maketh the heart sure”), but to measure or weigh, and therefore to estimate rightly, to know accurately (Jerome, spirituum ponderator est Dominus). The judgment of a man regarding the cause of life, which it is good for him to enter upon, lies exposed to great and subtle self-deception; but God has the measure and weight, 1.6. the means of proving, so as to value the spirits according to their true moral worth; his investigation goes to the root (cf. xpstixos, Heb. iv. 12), his judgment rests on the knowledge of the true state of the matter, and excludes all deception, so that thus a man can escape the danger of delusion by no other means than by placing his way, 1.6. his external and internal life, in the light of the word of God, and desiring for himself the all-penetrating test of the Searcher of hearts (Ds.
exxxix. 23 f.), and the self-knowledge corresponding to the result of this test. Ver. 3 Roll on Jahve thy works, So thy thoughts shall prosper. The proverbs vers. 1-3 are wanting in the LX X.; their absence is compensated for by three others, but only externally, not according to their worth. Instead of 53, the Syr., Targ., and Jerome read 3, revela, with which the by Ps, xxxvii. 5, cf. lv. 23, interchanging with ON (here and at Ps. xxii. 9), does not agree; rightly Theodotion, κύλισον ἐπὶ κύριον, and Luther, “commend to the Lord thy works.” The works are here, not those that are executed, Ex. xxiii. 16, but those to be executed, as Ps. xc. 17, where 213, here the active to 313", which at iv. 26 as jussive meant to be placed right, here with 1 of the consequence in the apodosis imperativt: to be brought about, and to have continuance, or briefly: to stand (cf. xii. 3) as the contrast of disappointment or ruin. We should roll on God all matters which, as obligations, burden us, and on account of their weight and difficulty cause us great anxiety, for nothing is too heavy or too hard for Him who can overcome all difficulties and dissolve all perplexities; then will our thoughts, viz. those about the future of our duty and our life-course, be happy, nothing will remain entangled and be a failure, but will be accomplished, and the end and aim be realized. Ver. 4 Jahve hath made everything for its contemplated end; And also the wicked for the day of evil.
Everywhere else 7292 means answer ( Venet. πρὸς ἀπόκρισιν αὐτοῦ), which is not suitable here, especially with the absoluteness of the 53; the Syr. and Targ. translate, obedientibus ei, which the words do not warrant; but also propter semet ipsum (Jerome, Theodotion, Luther) give to 4b no right parallelism, and, besides, would demand ‘ay? or amy», The punctuation way, which is an anomaly (cf. ΠΣ, Isa. xxiv. 2, and Ya, Ezra x. 14), shows (Ewald) that here we have, not the prepositional {?, but 5 with the subst. 12y2, which in derivation and meaning is one with the form tY) abbreviated from it (cf. 92, WW), similar in meaning to the Arab. ma’anyn, aim, intention, object, and end, and mind, from ’atay, to place opposite to oneself a matter, to make it the object of effort. Hitzig prefers myn, but why not rather aad, for the proverb is not intended to express that all that God has made serve a purpose (by which one is reminded of the arguments for the existence of
God from final causes, which are often prosecuted too far), but that all is made by God for its purpose, 1.6. a purpose premeditated by Him, that the world of things and of events stands under the law of a plan, which has in God its ground and its end, and that also the wickedness of free agents is comprehended in this plan, and made subordinate to it. God has not indeed made the wicked as such, but He has made the being which is capable of wickedness, and which has decided for it, viz. in view of the “ day of adversity” (Eccles. vii. 14), which God will cause to come upon him, thus making His holiness manifest in the merited punishment, and thus also making wickedness the means of manifesting His glory. It is the same thought which is expressed in Ex. ix. 16 with reference to Pharaoh. <A preedestinatio ad malum, and that in the supralapsarian sense, cannot be here taught, for this horrible dogma (horribile quidem decretum, fateor, says Calvin himself) makes God the author of evil, and a ruler according to His sovereign caprice, and thus destroys all pure conceptions of God. What Paul, Rom. ix., with reference to Ex. ix. 16, wishes to say is this, that it was not Pharaoh’s conduct that determined the will of God, but that the will of God is always the antecedens: nothing happens to God through the obstinacy and rebellion of man which determines Him to an action not already embraced ‘in the eternal plan, but also such an one must against his will be subservient to the display of God’s glory. The apostle adds ver. 22, and shows that he recognised tlie factor of human self-determination, but also as one comprehended in God’s plan. The free actions of men create no situation by which God would be surprised and compelled to something which was not originally intended by Himself. That is what the above proverb says: the wicked also has his place in God’s order of the world. Whoever frustrates the designs of grace must serve God in this, ἐνδείξασθαι τὴν ὀργὴν καὶ γνωρίσαι", τὸ δυνατὸν αὐτοῦ (Rom. ix. 22).
Here follow three proverbs of divine punishment, ewpiatio [Verstihnung] and reconciliatio [ Verséhnung }.
Ver. 5 An abomination to Jahve is every one who is haughty; The hand for it [assuredly] he remains not unpunished.
Proverbs thus commencing we already had at xv. 9, 26. 723 is a metaplastic connecting form of 923; on the contrary, 73, | Sam, xvi. 7, Ps. ciii. 11, means being high, as 723, height; the form underlying 723 is not 723 (as Gesen. and Olshausen write it), but 423, In 5d, xi. 21a is repeated. The translators are per- plexed in their rendering of ἐν Ἵν Fleischer: αὖ etate in wtatem non (i.e. nullo unguam tempore futuro) impunis erit. Ver. 6 By love and truth is iniquity expiated, And through the fear of Jahve one escapes from evil— literally, there comes (as the effect of it) the escaping of evil (730, n. actionis, as xill. 19), or rather, since the evil here comes into view as to its consequences (xiv. 27, xv. 24), rs, that one escapes evil. By NOs) ἼΣΠ are here meant, not the χάρις καὶ ἀλήθεια of God (Berthean), but, like xx. 28, ἫΝ xxxix. 8, love and faithfulness in the relation of men to one another. The 2 is both times that of the mediating cause. Or is it said neither by what means one may attain the expiation of his sins, nor how he may attain to the escaping from evil, but much rather wherein the true reverence for Jahve, and wherein the right expiation of sin, consist? Thus von Hofmann, Schriftbew. i. 595. But the 2 of ἼΦΠ2 is not different from that of NNta, Isa. xxvii. 9. It is true that the article of justification is falsified if good works enter as causa meritoria into the act of justification, but we of the evangelical school teach that the fides gud justificat is indeed inoperative, but not the fides que justificat, and we cannot expect of the O. T. that it should everywhere distinguish with Pauline precision what even James will not or cannot distinguish. As the law of sacrifice designates the victim united with the blood in the most definite manner, but sometimes also the whole transaction in the offering of sacrifice even to the priestly feast as serving "B29, Lev. x. 17, so it also happens in the general region of ethics: the objective ground of reconciliation is the decree of God, to which the blood in the typical offering points, and man isa partaker of this reconciliation, when he accepts, in penitence and in faith, the offered mercy of God; but this acceptance would be a self-deception, if it meant that the blotting out of the guilt of sin could be obtained in the way of imputation without the immediate following thereupon of a blotting of it out in the way of sanctification; and therefore the Scriptures also ascribe to goud works a share in the expiation of sin in a wider sense—namely, as the proofs of thankful (Luke vii. 47) and compassionate love (vid. at x. 2), as this proverb of love and truth, herein according with the words of the prophets, as Hos. vi. 6, Mic. vi. 6-8. He who is conscious of this, that he is a sinner, deeply guilty before God, who cannot stand before Him if He did not deal with him in mercy instead of justice, according to the purpose of His grace, cannot trust to this mercy if he is not zealous, in his relations to his fellow-men, to practise love and truth; and in view of the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, and of the parable of the unmerciful steward rightly understood, it may be said that the love which covers the sins, x. 12, of a neighbour, has, in regard to our own sins, a covering or atoning influence, for “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” That “love and truth” are meant of virtues practised from religious motives, 6b shows; for, according to this line, by the fear of Jahve one escapes evil. The fear of Jahve is subjection to the God of revelation, and a falling in with the revealed plan of salvation. Ver. 7 If Jahve has pleasure in the ways of a man, He reconciles even his enemies to him— properly (for povin is here the causative of the transitive, Josh. x. 1): He brings it about that they conclude peace with him. If God has pleasure in the ways of a man, i.e. in the designs which he prosecutes, and in the means which he employs, he shows, by the great consequences which flow from his endeavours, that, even as his enemies also acknowledge, God is with him (e.g. Gen. xxvi. 27 f.), so that they, vanquished in heart (6.9. 2 Sam. xix. 9 f.), abandon their hostile position, and become his friends. For if it is manifest that God makes Himself known, bestowing blessings on a man, there lies in this a power of conviction which disarms his most bitter opponents, excepting only those who have in selfishness hardened themselves.
Five proverbs of the king, together with three of righteousness in action and conduct:
Ver. 8 Better is a little with righteousness, Than rich revenues with unrighteousness. The cogn. proverb xv. 16 commences similarly. Of nisin 35, multitude or greatness of income, vid. xiv. 4: “ unrighteous wealth profits not.” The possessor of it is not truly happy, for sin cleaves to it, which troubles the heart (conscience), and because the enjoyment which it affords is troubled by the curses of those who are injured, and by the sighs of the oppressed. Above all other gains rises ἡ εὐσέβεια μετ᾽ αὐταρκείας (1 Tim. vi. 6). Ver. 9 The heart of man deviseth his way; But Jahve directeth his steps.
Similar to this is the German proverb: “ Der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt” [=our “man proposes, God disposes”], and the Arabic el“abd (1399 =man) judebbir wallah jukaddir; Latin, homo proponit, Deus disponit; for, as Hitzig rightly remarks, 95 means, not that God maketh his steps firm (Venet., Luther, Umbreit, Bertheau, Elster), but that He gives direction to him (Jerome, dirigere). Man deliberates here and there (2h, intens. of 2¥N, to calculate, reflect) how he will begin and carry on this or that; but his short-sightedness leaves much out of view which God sees; his calculation does not comprehend many contingencies which God disposes of and man cannot foresee. The result and issue are thus of God, and the best is, that in all his deliberations one should give himself up without self-confidence and arrogance to the guidance of God, that one should do his duty and leave the rest, with humility and confidence, to God. Ver. 10 Oracular decision (belongeth) to the lips of the king; In the judgment his mouth should not err.
The first line is a noun clause; DD?, as subject, thus needs a distinctive accent, and that is here, after the rule of the sequence of accents, and manuscript authority (vid. Torath Emeth, p. 49), not Mehuppach legarme, as in our printed copies, but Dechi (DDP.). Jerome’s translation: Divinatio in labiis regis, in judicio non errabit os ejus, and yet more Luther’s: “his mouth fails not in judgment,” makes it appear as if the proverb meant that the king, in his official duties, was infallible; and Hitzig (Zoéckler agreeing), indeed, finds here expressed the infallibility of the theocratic king, and that as an actual testimony to be believed, not only as a mere political fiction, like the phrase, “the king can do no wrong.” But while this political fiction is not strange even to the Israelitish law, according to which the king could not be brought before the judgment, that testimony is only a pure imagination. For as little as the N. T. teaches that the Pope, as the legitimate vicarius of Christ, is infallible, cum ex cathedra docet, so little does the O. T. that the theocratic king, who indeed was the legitimate vicarius Dei, was infallible in gudicio ferendo. Yet Ewald maintains that the proverb teaches that the word of the king, when on the seat of justice, is an infallible oracle; but it dates from the first bright period of the strong uncorrupted kingdom in Israel. One may not forget, says Dachsel also, with von Gerlach, that these proverbs belong to the time of Solomon, before it had given to the throne sons of David who did evil before the Lord. Then it would fare ill for the truth of the proverb—the course of history would falsify it. But in fact this was never maintained in Israel. Of the idolizing flattering language in which, at the present day, rulers in the East are addressed, not a trace is found in the O. T. The kings were restrained by objective law and the recognised rights of the people. David showed, not merely to those who were about him, but also to the people at large, so many human weaknesses, that he certainly appeared by no means infallible; and Solomon distinguished himself, it is true, by rare kingly wisdom, but when he surrounded himself with the glory of an oriental potentate, and when Rehoboam began to assume the tone of a despot, there arose an unhallowed breach between the theocratic kingdom and the greatest portion of the people. The proverb, as Hitzig translates and expounds it: “a divine utterance rests on the lips of the king; in giving judgment his mouth deceives not,” is both historically and dogmatically impossible. The choice of the word DD? (from 0D?, R. op wp, to make fast, to take an oath, to confirm by an oath, incantare, vid. at Isa. 111.2), which does not mean prediction (Luther), but speaking the truth, shows that 10a expresses, not what falls from the lips of the king in itself, but according to the judgment of the people: the people are wont to regard the utterances of the king as oracular, as they shouted in the circus at Cesarea of King Agrippa, designating his words as θεοῦ φωνὴ καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώπων (Acts xii. 22). Hence 10d supplies an earnest warning to the king, viz. that his mouth should not offend against richteousness, nor withhold it. ayn’ NS is meant as warning (Umbreit, Bertheau), like 827 ND, xxii. 24, and 3 in ΟΡ is here, as always, that of the object; at least this is more probable than that 5yp stands without object, which is possible, and that 3 designates the situation. Ver. 11 The scale and balances of a right kind are Jahve’s; His work are the weights of the bag.
Regarding DPB, statera, a level or steelyard (from Doe, to make even), vid. iv. 26; DIN (from ἢ, to weigh), libra, is another form of the balance: the shop-balance furnished with two scales. 22% are here the stones that serve for weights, and 5°3, which at i. 14 properly means the money-bag, money-purse (cf. vii. 20), is here, as at Mic. vi. 11, the bag in which the merchant carries the weights. The genit. DSW belongs also to DDB, which, in our edition, is pointed with the disjunctive Mehuppach legarme, is rightly accented in Cod. 1294 (vid. Torath Emeth, p. 50) with the conjunctive Mehuppach. wv, as 110 shows, is not like D1, the word with the principal tone; lla says that the balance thus, or thus constructed, which weighs accurately and justly, is Jahve’s, or His arrangement, and the object of His inspection, and 110, that all the weight-stones of the bag, and generally the means of weighing and measuring, rest upon divine ordinance, that in the transaction and conduct of men honesty and certainty might rule. This is the declared will of God, the lawgiver; for among the few direct determinations of His law with reference to trade this stands prominent, that just weights and just measures shall be used, Lev. xix. 36, Deut. xxv. 13-16. The expression of the poet here frames itself after this law; yet ‘N is not exclusively the God of positive revelation, but, as agriculture in Isa. xxvii. 29, cf. Sirach vii. 15, so here the invention of normative and normal means of commercial intercouse is referred to the direction and institution of God. Ver. 12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness, For by righteousness the throne is established.
As 106 uttered a warning to the king, grounded on the fact of 10a, so 12a indirectly contains a warning, which is confirmed by the fact 125. It is a fact that the throne is established by righteousness (3) as expressive of a rule, like 3}, Isa. xvi. 5, as expressive of an event); on this account it is an abomination to kings immediately or mediately to commit wickedness, 1.6. to place themselves in despotic self-will above the law. Such wicked conduct shall be, and ought to be, an abhorrence to them, because they know that they thereby endanger the stability of their throne. This is generally the case, but especially was it so in Israel, where the royal power was never absolutistic; where the king as well as the people were piaced under God’s law; where the existence of the community was based on the understood equality of right; and the word of the people, as well as the word of the prophets, was free, Another condition of the stability of the throne is, after xxv. 5, the removal of godless men from nearness to the king. Rehoboam lost the greater part of his kingdom by this, that he listened to the counsel of the young men who were hated by the people.
Ver. 13. History is full of such warning examples, and therefore this proverb continues to hold up the mirror to princes.
Well-pleasing to kings are righteous lips, And whoever speaketh uprightly is loved.
Rightly the LXX. ἀγαπᾶ, individ. plur., instead of the plur. of genus, D'20); on the contrary, Jerome and Luther give to the sing. the most general subject (one lives), in which case it must be distinctly said, that that preference of the king for the people who speak out the truth, and just what they think, is shared in by every one. ΡΝ, as the property of the ‘N5Y, accords with the Arab. sidk, truth as the property of the lasdn (the tongue or speech). DW, from W*, means recta, as 0°23, principalia, viii. 6, and O°", inania, xii. 11. OW, Dan. xi. 10, neut. So neut. Ww”, Ps. cxi. 8; but is rather, with Hitzig and Riehm, to be read 1”, What the proverb says cannot be meant of all kings, for even the house of David had murderers of prophets, like Manasseh and Joiakim; but in general it is nevertheless true that noble candour, united with true loyalty and pure love to the king and the people, is with kings more highly prized than mean flattery, seeking only its own advantage, and that, though this (flattery) may for a time prevail, yet, at last, fidelity to duty, and respect for truth, gain the victory. Ver. 14 The wrath of the king is like messengers of death; But a wise man appeaseth him.
The clause: the wrath of the king is many messengers of death, can be regarded as the attribution of the effect, but it falls under the point of view of likeness, instead of comparison: if the king is angry, it is as if a troop of messengers or angels of death went forth to visit with death him against whom the anger is kindled; the plur. serves for the strengthening of the figure: not one messenger of death, but at the same time several, the wrinkled brow, the’ flaming eye, the threatening voice of the king sends forth (Fleischer). But if he against whom the wrath of the king has thus broken forth is a wise man, or one near the king who knows that ὀργὴ ἀνδρὸς δικαιοσύνην Θεοῦ od κατεργάζεται (Jas. i. 20), he will seek to discover the means (and not without success) to coyer or to propitiate, 1.6. to mitigate and appease, the king’s anger. The Scripture never uses 123, so that God is the object (expiare Deum), because, as is shown in the Comm. zum Hebrderbrief, that were to say, contrary to the decorum divinum, that God’s holiness or wrath is covered, or its energy bound, by the offering up of sacrifices or of things in which there is no inherent virtue of atonement, and which are made the means of reconciliation only by the accommodative arrangement of God. On the contrary,
783 is used here and at Gen. xxxil. 21 of covering = reconciling (propitiating) the wrath of a man. Ver. 15 In the light on the king’s countenance there is life, And his favour is as a cloud of the latter rains.
Hitzig regards ix as the inf. (cf. iv. 18), but one says substantively "28 18, Job xxix. 24, etc., and in a similar sense "ind oy, xv. 30; light is the condition of life, and the exhilaration of life, wherefore 0°77 is, Ps. ἵν]. 14, Job xxxiii. 30, is equivalent to a fresh, joyous life; in the light of the king’s countenance is life, means that life goes forth from the cheerful approbation of - the king, which shows itself in his face, viz. in the showing of favour, which cheers the heart and beautifies the life. To speak of liberality as a shower is socommon to the Semitic, that it has in Arab. the general name of nadnd, rain. 15 conforms itself to this. wip (cf. Job xxix. 23) is the latter rain, which, falling about the spring equinox, brings to maturity the barley-harvest; on the contrary, 7D (7) is the early rain, which comes at the time of ploughing and sowing; the former is thus the harvest rain, and the latter the spring rain. Like a cloud which discharges the rain that mollifies the earth and refreshes the growing corn, is the king’s favour. The noun 3, thus in the sé. constr., retains its Kametz. Michlol 1916. This proverb is the contrast to ver. 14. xx. 2 has also the anger of the king as its theme. In xix. 12 the figures of the darkness and the light stand together as parts of one proverb. The proverbs relating to the king are now at an end. Ver. 10 contains a direct warning for the king; ver. 12 an indirect warning, as a conclusion arising from 120 (cf. xx. 28, where 8" is not to be translated tueantur; the proverb has, however, the value of a nota bene). Ver. 13 in like manner presents an indirect warning, less to the king than to those who have intercourse with him (cf. xxv. 5), and vers. 14 and 15 show what power of good and evil, of wrath and of blessing, is given to a king, whence so much the greater responsibility arises to him, but, at the same time also, the duty of all to repress the lust to evil that may be in him, and to awaken and foster in him the desire for good.
Five proverbs regarding wisdom, righteousness, humility, and trust in God, forming, as it were, a succession of steps, for humility is the virtue of virtues, and trust in God the condition of all salvation. Three of these proverbs have the word 210 in common.
Ver. 16 To gain wisdom, how much better is it than gold: And to attain understanding to be preferred to silver.
Commendation of the striving after wisdom (understanding) with which all wisdom begins, for one gains an intellectual possession not by inheritance, but by acquisition, iv. 7. A similar “ parallel-comparative clause” (Fl.), with the interchange of "ἰὼ and 17), is xxii. 1, but yet more so is xxi. 3, where 101), as here, is neut. pred. (not, as at viii. 10 and elsewhere, adj.), and Tey, such an anomalous form of the inf. constr. as here 737, Gesen. ὃ 75, Anm. 2; in both instances it could also be regarded as the inf. absol. (cf. xxv. 27) (Lehryebdude, § 109, Anm. 2); yet the language uses, as in the case before us, the form 73 only with the force of an abl. of the gerund, as i¥¥ occurs Gen. xxxi. 38; the inf. of verbs n> as nom. (as here), genit. (Gen. 1. 20), and accus. (Ps. ci. 3), is always either nica or 123, The meaning is not that to gain wisdom is more valuable than gold, but that the gaining of wisdom exceeds the gaining of gold and silver, the common comparatio decurtata (cf. Job xxviii. 18). Regarding 0, vid. at ii. 14. Ver. 17 The path of the righteous is the avoiding of evil, And he preserveth his soul who giveth heed to his way. The meaning of ΠΡΟ, occurring only here in the Proverbs, is to be learned from xv.19. The attribution denotes that wherein the way they take consists, or by which it is formed; it is one, a straight and an open way, 1.6. unimpeded, leading them on, because they avoid the evil which entices them aside to the right and the left. Whoever then gives heed to his way, preserveth his soul (δ WB), as xiii. 3, on the contrary xxv. 5, subj.), that it suffer not injury and fall under death, for yn 11D and Mn ΡΥ Nd, xiv. 27, are essentially the same. Instead of this distich, the LXX. has three distichs; the thoughts presented in the four superfluous lines are all already expressed in the one distich. Ewald and Hitzig find in this addition of the LX X. a component part of the original text. Ver. 18 Pride goeth before destruction, And haughtiness cometh before a fall.
The contrast is moy 2D 1205, xv. 33, according to which the “ haughtiness comes before a fall” in xviii. 22 is expanded into the antithetic distich. 72% means the fracture of the limbs, destruction of the person. A Latin proverb says, “ Magna cadunt, inflata erepant, tumefacta premuntur.’* Here being dashed in pieces and overthrown correspond. 73% means neither bursting (Hitzig) nor shipwreck (Ewald). How (like jinwa, jdt, ete.), from wD or Pvia3, to totter, and hence, as a consequence, to come to ruin, is a ἅπαξ. rey. This proverb, which stands in the very centre of the Book of Proverbs, is followed by another in praise of humility. Ver. 19 Better in humility to dwell among sufferers, Than to divide spoil among the proud. The form ΚΣ is here not adj. as xxix. 23 (from SaY, like DN, vi. 32, from DM), but inf. (like Eccles. xii. 14, and 700, defectio, x. 21). There existed here also no proper reason for changing DY (Chethib) into O39; Hitzig is right in saying that 2y may also be taken in the sense of ‘yp [the idea “sufferer” is that which mediates], and that here the inward fact of humility and the outward of dividing spoil, stand opposed to one another. It is better to live lowly, i.e. with a mind devoid of earthly pride (Demut [humility | comes from déo with the deep e, diu, servant), among men who have experience of the vanity of earthly joys, than, intoxicated with pride, to enjoy oneself amid worldly wealth and greatness (cf. Isa. ix: 2): Ver. 20 He that giveth heed to the word will find prosperity; And he that trusteth in Jahve, blessed is he!
The “word” here is the word κατ᾽ é£., the divine word, for 32 ἼΣΟΝ is the contrast of 127? ta, xiii. 13a, cf. Neh. viii. 13. ip is meant, as in xvii. 20, cf. xiii. 21, Ps. xxiii. 6; to give heed to God’s word is the way to true prosperity. But at last all depends on this, that one stand in personal fellowship with God by means of faith, which here, as at xxviil. 25, xxix. 25, is designated after its specific mark as fiducia. The Mashal conclusion "WS occurs, besides here, only at xiv. 21, xxix. 18.
Four proverbs of wisdom with eloquence:
Ver. 21 The wise in heart is called prudent, And grace of the lips increaseth learning.
Elsewhere (i. 5, ix. 9) npe ἢ ΘΠ means more than to gain learning, 1.6. erudition in the ethico-practical sense, for sweetness of the lips (dulcedo orationis of Cicero) is, as to learning, without significance, but of so much the greater value for teaching; for grace of
1 An expression of similar meaning is 3h NNT “NN =after Darga (to expression, and of exposition, particularly if it be not merely rhetorical, but, according to the saying pectus disertos facit, coming out of the heart, is full of mind, it imparts force to the instruction, and makes it acceptable. Whoever is wise of heart, ie. of mind or spirit (32 = the N. T. νοῦς or πνεῦμα), is called, and is truly, 2) [learned, intelligent] (Fleischer compares to this the expression frequent in Isaiah, “to be named” =to be and appear to be, the Arab. dw’ay lah); but there is a gift which highly increases the worth of this understanding or intelligence, for it makes it fruitful of good to others, and that is grace of the lips. On the lips (x. 13) of the intelligent wisdom is found; but the form also, and the whole manner and way in which he gives expression to this wisdom, is pleasing, proceeding from a deep and tender feeling for the suitable and the beneficial, and thus he produces effectsso much the more surely, and beneficently, and richly. Ver. 22 A fountain of life is understanding to its possessor; But the correction of fools is folly. Oetinger, Bertheau, and others erroneously understand ΘῊΡ of the education which fools bestow upon others; when fools is the subject spoken of, 1D: is always the education which is bestowed on them, vii. 22,1. 7; cf v. 23, xv. 5. Also D1» does not here mean education, disciplina, in the moral sense (Symmachus, ἔννοια; Jerome, doctrina): that which fools gain from education, from training, is folly, for ἼΘΙ is the contrast to ὉΠ 7ipd, and has thus the meaning of correction or chastisement, xv. 10, Jer. xxx. 14, And thatthe fruits of understanding (xii. 8, cf. 21 Say, fine culture, xiii. 15) represented by on pp (vid. x. 11) will accrue to the intelligent themselves, is shown not only by the contrast, but also by the expression: Scaturigo vite est intellectus oreditorum eo, of those (=to those) who are endowed therewith (the LXX. well, τοῖς κεκτημένοις). The man of understanding has in this intellectual possession a fountain of strength, a source of guidance, and a counsel which make his life secure, deepen, and adorn it; while, on the contrary, folly punishes itself by folly (cf. to the form, xiv. 24), for the fool, when he does not come to himself (Ps. evii. 17-22), recklessly destroys his own prosperity. Ver. 23 The heart of the wise maketh his mouth wise, And learning mounteth up to his lips. Regarding abn as causative: to put into the possession of intelligence, vid. at Gen. ili. 6. Wisdom in the heart produceth intelligent discourse, and, as the parallel member expresses it, learning mounteth up to the lips, ze. the learning which the man taketh into his lips (xxii. 18; cf. Ps. xvi. 4) to communicate it to others, for the contents of the learning, and the ability to communicate it, are measured by the wisdom of the heart of him who possesses it. One can also interpret 4D\ as extens. increasing: the heart of the wise increaseth, 7.e. spreads abroad learning, but then n5va (Ps. cxix. 13) would have been more suitable; wna y calls up the idea of learning as hovering on the lips, and thus brings so much nearer, for ἢ ΟΠ, the meaning of the exaltation of its worth and impression. Ver. 24 A honeycomb are pleasant words, Sweet to the soul, and healing to the bones.
Honeycomb, 1.6. honey flowing from the sy, the comb or cell (favus), is otherwise designated, Ps. xix. 11. Pind, with RBID (vid. Ρ. 132), is neut. DPI" ON are, according to xv. 26, words which love suggests, and which breathe love. Such words are sweet to the soul of the hearer, and bring strength and healing to his bones (xv. 30); for X59 is not only that which restores soundness, but also that which preserves and advances it (cf. θεραπεία, Rev. Xxil. 2).
A group of six proverbs follows, four of which begin with wx, and five relate to the utterances of the mouth.
Ver. 25 There is a way which appears as right to a man; But the end thereof are the ways of death. This verse = xiv. 12. Ver. 26 The hunger of the labourer laboureth for him, For he is urged on by his mouth.
The Syr. translates: the soul of him who inflicts woe itself suffers it, and from his mouth destruction comes to him; the Targ. brings this translation nearer the original text (85°3, humiliation, instead of N272x, destruction); Luther translates thus also, violently abbreviating, however. But δῸν (from mY, Arab. ’amila, to exert oneself, laborare) means, like laboriosus, labouring as well as enduring difficulty, but not, as πονῶν τινα, causing difficulty, or (Kuchel) occupied with difficulty. And labour and the mouth stand together, denoting that man labours that the mouth may have somewhat to eat (cf. 2 Thess. iii. 10; 08), however, gains in this connection the meaning of ψυχὴ opextixyn, and that of desire after nourishment, vid. at vi. 80, x. 3). 128 also joins itself to this circle of ideas, for it means to urge (Jerome, compulit), properly (related to 182, ineurvare, RDD DD, to constrain, necessitate), to bow down by means of a burden. The Arameo-Arab. signification, to saddle (Schultens: clitellas imposwt er os suum), is a secondary denom. (vid. at Job xxxiii. 7). The Venet. well renders it after Kimchi: ἐπεὶ κύπτει ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν TO στόμα αὐτοῦ. Thus: the need of nourishment on the part of the labourer works for him (dat. commodi like Isa. xl. 20), i.e. helps him to labour, for (not: if, ἐάν, as Rashi and others) it presses upon him; his mouth, which will have something to eat, urges him. It is God who has in this way connected together working and eating. The curse in sudore vultus tui comedes panem conceals a blessing. ‘The proverb has in view this reverse side of the blessing in the arrangement of God. Ver. 27 A worthless man diggeth evil; And on his lips is, as it were, scorching fire. Regarding oysa MN, vid. vi. 12, and regarding 773, to dig round, or to bore out, vid. at Gen. xlix. 5, 1.5; here the figure, “to dig for others a pit,” xxvi. 27, Ps. vii. 16, etc.: to dig evil is equivalent to, to seek to prepare such for others. ΠΝ Kimchi rightly explains as a form similar to NWP; as a subst. it means, Lev. xiii. 23, the mark of fire (the healed mark of a carbuncle), here as an adj. of a fire, although not flaming (nan? WN, Isa. iv. 5, etc); yet so much the hotter, and scorching everything that comes near to it (from 273, to be scorched, cogn. 27”, to which also ἢ is perhaps related as a stronger power, like comburere to adurere). The meaning is clear: a worthless man, 1.6. a man whose disposition and conduct are the direct contrast of usefulness and piety, uses words which, like an iron glowing hot, scorches and burns; his tongue is φλογιζομένη ὑπὸ τῆς γεέννης (Jas. 11]. 6). Ver. 28 A man of falsehood scattereth strife, And a backbiter separateth confidential friends.
mb, confidential friend, vid. p. 82; the sing., as xviii. 9, is used in view of the mutual relationship, and 75 proceeds on the separation of the one, and, at the same time, of the other from it. Luther, in translating by “a slanderer makes princes disagree,” is in error, for 8, φύλαρχος, is not a generic word for prince. Ver. 29 A man of violence enticeth his neighbour,
And leadeth him in a way which is not good. Cf. Gen. iv. 8. The subject is not moral enticement, but enticement to some place or situation which facilitates to the violent man the carrying out of his violent purpose (misdemeanour, robbery, - extortion, murder), DM (here with &*S at iii. 31) is the injustice of club-law, the conduct of him who puts his superior power in godless rudeness in the place of God, Hab. 1. 11, cf. Job xii. 6. «A way not good” (cf. Ps. xxxvi. 5) is the contradictory contrast of the good way: one altogether evil and destructive.
He who biteth his lips bringeth evil to pass. A physiognomical Caveto. The az. dey. ΠΣ is connected with Ds, Isa. xxxiii. 15 (Arab. transp. ghamd), comprimere, formed from it. Regarding yp of lips or eyes, vid. p. 144; the biting of the lips is the action of the deceitful, and denotes scorn, malice, knavery. The perf. denotes that he who is seen doing this has some evil as good as accomplished, for he is inwardly ready for it; Hitzig suitably compares 1 Sam. xx. 7, 33. Our editions (also Lowenstein) have 723, but the Masora (vid. Mas. finalis, p. 1) numbers the word among those which terminate in δὲ, and always writes ND.
We now take together a series of proverbs, xvi. 31—xvii. 5, beginning with NOY. Ver. 31 A bright diadem is a hoary head, In the way of righteousness it is found— namely, this bright diadem, this beautiful crown (iv. 8), which silver hair is to him who has it as the result of his advanced age (xx. 29), for “thou shalt rise up before the hoary head,” Lev. xix. 32; and the contrast of an early death is to die in a good old age, Gen. xv. 15, etc., but a long life is on one side a self-consequence, and on another the promised reward of a course of conduct regulated by God’s will, God’s law, and by the rule of love to God and love to one’s neighbour. From the N. T. standpoint that is also so far true, as in all the world there is no better established means of prolonging life than the avoidance of evil; but the clause corresponding to the O. T. standpoint, that evil punishes itself by a premature death, and that good is rewarded by long life, has indeed many exceptions arising from the facts of experience against it, for we see even the godless in their life of sin attaining to an advanced old age, and in view of the veiled future it appears only as a onesided truth, so that the words, Wisd. iv. 9, “ discretion is to man the right grey hairs, and an unstained life is the right old age,” which is mediated by life experiences, such as Isa. lvii. 1 f., stand opposed to the above proverb as its reversed side. That old Solomonic proverb is, however, true, for it is not subverted; and, in contrast to self-destroying vice and wickedness; calling forth the judgment of God, it is and remains true, that whoever would reach an honoured old age, attains to it in the way of a righteous life and conduct.
And whoever is master of his spirit, than he who taketh a city. Regarding ΕΝ JN, vid. xiv. 29, where MAW? was the parallel of the contrast. ‘he comparison is true as regards persons, with reference to the performances expressed, and (since warlike courage and moral self-control may be united in one person) they are properly those in which the 21 determines the moral estimate. In Pirke Aboth iv. 1, the question, “ Who is the hero?” is answered by, “ he who overcomes his desire,” with reference to this proverb, for that which is here said of the ruling over the passion of anger is true of all affections and passions.
“ὁ Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king; Which every wise and virtuous man attains.” +
On the other side, the comparison is suggested:
Break your head, not so sore; Break your will—that is more.?
Ver. 33 One casts the lot into the lap; But all its decision cometh from Jahve. The Téra knows only in one instance an ordeal (a judgment of God) as a right means of proof, Num. v. 12-31. The lot is nowhere ordained by it, but its use is supported by a custom running parallel with the Mosaic law; it was used not only in private life, 1 Milton’s Paradise Regained, ii. 466-8.
2“ Zerbrich den Kopf dir nicht so sehr; Zerbrich den Willen—das ist mehr.’ —Matru. CLAUDICS.
but also in manifold ways within the domain of public justice, as well as for the detection of the guilty, Josh. vii. 14 f., 1 Sam. xiv. 40-42. So that the proverb xviii. 18 says the same thing of the lot that is said in the Epistle to the Ilebrews, vi. 16, of the oath. The above proverb also explains the lot for an ordeal, for it is God who directs and orders it that it fall out thus and not otherwise. A particular sanction of the use of the lot does not lie in this, but it is only said, that where the lot is cast, all the decision that results from it is determined by God. That is in all cases true; but whether the challenging of the divine decision in such a way be right in this or that case is a question, and in no case would one, on the contrary, venture to make the person of the transgressor discoverable by lot, and let it decide regarding human life. But antiquity judged this matter differently, as e.g. the Book of Jonah (chap. i.) shows; it was a practice, animated by faith, in God’s government of the world, which, if it did not observe the boundary between faith and superstition, yet stood high above the unbelief of the “ Enlightenment.” Like the Greek κόλπος, ΡΠ (from pin, Arab. hak, khak, to encompass, to stretch out) means, as it is commonly taken, gremium as well as sinus, but the latter meaning is the more sure; and thus also here it is not the lap as the middle of the body, so that one ought to think on him who casts the lot as seated, but also not the lap of the garment, but, like vi. 27, cf. Isa. xl. 11, the swelling, loose, external part of the clothing covering the bosom (the breast), where the lot covered by it is thrown by means of shaking and changing, and whence it is drawn out. The construction of the passive on (from ‘= Arab. tall, to throw along) with the object. accus. follows the old scheme, Gen. iv. 18, and has its reason in this, that the Semitic passive, formed by the change of vowels, has not wholly given up the governing force of the active. DB signifies here decision as by the Urim and Thummim, Num. xxvii. 21, but which was no lot-apparatus. xvii. 1. A comparative proverb with 21%, pairing with xvi. 32: Better a dry piece of bread, and quietness therewith, Than a house full of slain beasts with unquietness.
Similar to this in form and contents are xv. 16f. and xvi. 8. nan NB is a piece of bread (nb, fem., as xxiii. 8) without savoury drink (Theodotion, καθ᾽ ἑαυτόν, i.e. nothing with it), cf. Lev. vii. 10, a meat-offering without the pouring out of oil. ὉΔῚ are not sacrificial gifts (Hitzig), but, as always, slain animals, i.e. either offerings or banquets of slain beasts; it is the old name of the pode (cf. Ex. xviii. 12, xxiv. 5; Prov. vii. 14), part of which only were offered on the altar, and part presented as a banquet; and nat (in contradist. to M30, ix. 2, Gen. xliii. 16) denotes generally any kind of consecrated festival in connection with the worship of God, 1 Sam. xx. 29; cf. Gen. xxxi. 54. “Festivals of hatred” are festivals with hatred, NPD is part. with object.-accus.; in general xo forms a constructive, NOD occurs only once (Jer. vi. 11), and N20 not at all. We have already, vii. 14, remarked on the degenerating of the shelamim feasts; from this proverb it is to be concluded that the merriment and the excitement bordering on intoxication (cf. with Hitzig, 1 Sam. i. 13 and 3), such as frequently at the Kirmsen merry-makings (vid. p. 164), brought quarrels and strife, so that the poor who ate his dry bread in quiet peace could look on all this noise and tumult without envy. Ver. 2 A prudent servant shall rule over the degenerate son; And he divides the inheritance among the brethren.
Regarding the contrasts of ΠΕΣ and Ὁ 30, vid. at x. 5, xiv. 35. The printed editions present %*297}23 in genit. connection: a son of the scandalous class, which is admissible (vid. p. 79 and p. 330); but Cod. 1294 and Cod. Jaman,’ Erf. No. 2, 3, write M29 123 (with Tsere and Munach), and that is perhaps right, after x. 5, xvii. 25. The futures have here also a fut. signification: they say to what it will come. Grotius remarks, with reference to this: manumissus tutor filiis relinquetur; pdm tutorio officio. But if he is a conscientious, unselfish tutor, he will not enrich himself by property which belongs to another; and thus, though not without provision, he is yet without an inheritance. And yet the supplanting of the degenerate is brought about by this, that he loses his inheritance, and the intelligent servant steps into his place. Has one then to suppose that the master of the house makes his servant a co-heir with his own children, and at the same time names him as his executor? That were a bad anachronism. The idea of the διαθήκη was, at the time when this proverb was coined, one unknown—lIsraelitish antiquity knows only the intestate right of inheritance, regulated by lineal and gradual succession. Then, if one thinks of the degenerate son, that he is disowned by the father, but tht the intelligent servant is not rewarded during the life of his master for his true
1 The Cod. brought by Sappir from Jemen (vid. p. 295), of which there is an account in the preface to the edition of [saiah by Baer and me.
services, and that, after the death of the master, to such a degree he possesses the esteem and confidence of the family, that he it is who divides the inheritance among the brethren, 1.6. occupies the place amongst them of distributor of the inheritance, not: takes a portion of the inheritance, for P2M has not the double meaning of the Lat. participare; it means to divide, and may, with 3, mean “to give a part of anything” (Job xxxix. 17); but, voit the accus., nothing else than to distribute, e.g. Josh. xvili. 2, where it is to be translated: ‘‘ whose inheritance had not yet been distributed (not yet given to them).” Jerome, hereditatem dividet; and thus all translators, from the LX X. to Luther.
And a trier of hearts is Jahve.
An emblematical proverb (vid. p. 9), which means that Jahve is for the heart what the smelting-pot (from ἢν, to change, particularly to melt, to refine) is for silver, and what the smelting furnace (13, from 3, R. 13, to round, Ex. xxii. 20) is for gold, that Jahve is for the heart, viz. a trier (jn3, to grind, to try by grinding, here as at Ps. vii. 10) of their nature and their contents, for which, of the proof of metals, is elsewhere (xvi. 2, xxi. 2, xxiv. 12) used the word (cf. iN3, the essay- master, Jer. vi. 7) }2", weigher, or vain, searcher (1 Chron. xxviii. 9). Wherever the subject spoken of is God, the searcher of hearts, the plur. nia?, once nin, 1 is used; the form pant occurs only in the status conjunctus with the suffix. In xxvii. 21 there follow the two figures, with which there is formed a priamel (vid. p. 13), as at xxvi. 3, another tertium comparationis.
Falsehood listeneth to a destructive tongue.
The meaning, at all events, is, that whoever gives ear with delight to words which are morally reprobate, and aimed at the destruction of neighbours, thereby characterizes himself as a profligate. Though yi is probably not pred. but subj., yet so that what follows does not describe the 37) (the profligate hearkens...), but stamps him who does this as a "2 (a profligate, or, as we say: only a profligate...). YD, for Κη, is warranted by Isa. ix. 16, where YN (not YP, according to which the Venet. here translates ἀπὸ Κακοῦ) is testified to not only by correct codd. and editions, but also by the Masora (cf. Michlol 1166). 2vP7 (from 2WP, R. wp, to stiffen, or, as we say, to prick, viz. the ear) is generally waiitetl W ith?
or Oy, but, as here and at xxix. 12, Jer. vi. 19, also with 5Y. fx, wickedness, is the absolute contrast of a pious and philanthropic mind; M43, from 33, not in the sense of eagerness, as x. 3, xi. 6, but of yawning depth, abyss, catastrophe (vid. at Ps. v. 10), is equivalent to entire destruction—the two genitives denote the property of the lips and the tongue (dabium nequam, lingua perniciosa), on the side of that which it instrumentally aims at (cf. Ps. xxxvi. 4, li. 4): practising mischief, destructive plans. Ἢρ beginning the second line is generally regarded as the subj. parallel with 30, as Luther, after Jerome, “ A wicked man gives heed to wicked mouths, and a false man listens willingly to scandalous tongues.” It is possible that spy denotes incarnate falsehood, as ΠΡ), xii. 27, incarnate slothfulness, cf. ΠΟ, xiv. 25, and perhaps also xii. 17; PIS, Ps. lviii. 2, PAN, Mic. vi. 9; 70D ¥', Isa. xxvi. 13, etc., where, without supplying δὲ (‘W28), the property stands instead of the person possessing that property. The clause, that falsehood listeneth to a deceitful tongue, means that he who listens to it characterizes himself thereby, according to the proverb, simile simili gaudet, as a liar. But only asaliar? The punctuation before us, which represents Y1 by Dechi as subj., or also pred., takes ἯΙ "PY as obj. with jt as its governing word, and why should not that be the view intended? The representation of the obj. is an inversion less bold than Isa. xxii. 2, viii. 22, and that -Y here should not be so closely connected with the verb of hearing, as 4a lies near by this, that by awpPn is elsewhere found, but not by Mx, Jewish interpreters, taking 1pw as obj., try some other meaning of “Ὁ than auseultans; but neither ἢ, to approach, nor 9, to arm (Venet. ψεῦδος ὁπλίζει), gives a meaning suitable to this place. ἢ is equivalent to MND. As PRX, Job xxxii. 11, is contracted into (8, so must "x, if the character of the part. shall be preserved, become "IP, mediated by }'M. Ver. 5 He that mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker; He that rejoiceth over calamity remains not unpunished,
Line first is a variation of xiv. 3la. God is, according to xxii. 2, the creator of the poor as well as of the rich. The poor, as a man, and as poor, is the work of God, the creator and governor of all things; thus, he who mocketh the poor, mocketh Him who called him into existence, and appointed him his lowly place. But in general, compassion and pity, and not joy (? no’, commonly with 9, of the person, eg. Obad. ver. 12, the usual formula for ἐπιχαιρεκακία), is appropriate in the presence of misfortune (TS, from “38, to be heavily burdened), for such joy, even if he on whom the misfortune fell were our enemy, is a peccatum mortale, Job xxxi. 29f. There is indeed a hallowed joy at the actual revelation in history of the divine righteousness; but this would not be a hallowed joy if it were not united with deep sorrow over those who, accessible to no warning, have despised grace, and, by adding sin to sin, have provoked God’s anger. Ver. 6. With this verse this series of proverbs closes as it began: A diadem of the old are children’s children, And the glory of children are their parents. Children are a blessing from God (Ps. cxxvil., exxviii.); thus, a family circle consisting of children and grandchildren (including great-grandchildren) is as a crown of glory surrounding the greyhaired patriarch; and again, children have glory and honour in their parents, for to have a man of an honoured name, or of a blessed memory, as a father, is the most effective commendation, and has for the son, even though he is unlike his father, always important and beneficial consequences. In 68 a fact of experience is expressed, from which has proceeded the rank of inherited nobility recognised among men—one may abnegate his social rights, but yet he himseif is and remains a part of the moral order of the world. The LXX. has a distich after ver. 4 [the Vatican text places it after ver. 6]: “The whole world of wealth belongs to the faithful, but to the unfaithful not even an obolus.” Lagarde supposes that ὅλος ὁ κόσμος τῶν χρημάτων is a translation of 1 NYSY, instead of nn’ nav, 7a. But this ingenious conjecture does not amount to the fiseirdina of this distich as a variation of ver. 7. The proverbs following, 7-10, appear to be united acrostically by the succession of the letters w (, w) and ἢ. Ver. 7 It does not become a fool to speak loftily, How much less do lying lips a noble! As at Isa. xxxii. 5 f., 922 and 31) are placed opposite to one another; the latter is the nobly magnanimous man, the former the man who thinks foolishly and acts profligately, whom it does not become to use lofty words, who thereby makes the impression of his vulgarity so much the more repulsive (cf. Job ii. 10). 9.) NB’ (not 1", for the word belongs to those which retain their Puthach