Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

1 We punctuate iN 95, for that is Ben Asher’s punctuation, while that of his opponent Ben Naphtali is | x79. Vid. Thorath Emeth, p. 88.

mY signifies (vid. at vi, 22) meditation and speech, here sorrowful thought and sorrowful complaint (1 Sam. i. 16; Ps. lv. 18; cf.733, 237), e.g. over the exhausted purse, the neglected work, the anticipated reproaches, the diminishing strength. In the connection 037 DY¥B (cf. Ps. xxxv. 19) the accus. adv. pin (French graturtement) represents the place of an adjective: strokes which one receives without being in the situation from necessity, or duty to expect them, strokes for nothing and in return for nothing (Fleischer), wounds for a long while (Oetinger). dy meron is the darkening (clouding) of the eyes, from oon n, to be firm, closed, and transferred to the sensation of light: to be dark (vid. at Gen. xlix. 12; Ps. x. 8); the copper-nose of the drunkard is not under consideration; the word does not refer to the reddening, but the dimming of the eyes, and of the power of vision. The answer, ver. 80, begins, in conformity with the form of the question, with 5 (write DMINnND?, with Gaja to 5, according to Metheg-Setzung, § 20, Michlol 40): pain, and woe, and contention they have who tarry late at the wine (cf. Isa. v. 11), who enter (viz. into the wine-house, Eccles. 11. 4, the house of revelry) “ to search” mingled drink (vid. at ix. 2; Isa. v. 22). Hitzig: “ they test the mixing, as to the relation of the wine to the water, whether it is correct.” But nipn? is like 033, Isa. v. 22, meant in mockery: they are heroes, viz. heroes in drinking; they are searchers, such, namely, as seek to examine into the mixed wine, or also: thoroughly and carefully taste it (Fleischer).

The evil consequences of drunkenness are now registered. That one may not fall under this common sin, the poet, ver. 31, warns against the attraction which the wine presents to the sight and to the sense of taste: one must not permit himself to be caught as a prisoner by this enticement, but must maintain his freedom against it. DUNN, to make, i.e. to show oneself red, is almost equivalent to DYN 5 and more than this, it presents Shes wine as itself co-operating and active by its red play of colours (Fleischer). Regarding the antiptosis (antiphonesis): Look not on the wine that is..., vid. at Gen. i. 3; yet here, where AX] means not merely “to see,” but * to look at,” the case is somewhat different. In 810, one for the most part assumes that 12°Y signifies the eye of the wine, i.e. the pearls which play on the surface of the wine (Fleischer). And, indeed, Hitzig’s translation, after Num. xi. 7: when it presents its appearance in the cup, does not commend itself, because it expresses too little. On the other hand, it is saying too much when Bottcher maintains that ἢ never denotes the mere appearance, but always the shining aspect of the object. But used of wine, ἮΝ appears to denote not merely aspect as such, but its gleam, glance; not its pearls, for which Ὁ) would be the word used, but shining glance, by which particularly the bright glance, as out of deep darkness, of the Syro-Palestinian wine is thought of, which is for the most part prepared from red (blue) grapes, and because very rich in sugar, is thick almost like syrup. Jerome translates 1» well: (cum splenduerit in vitro) color ejus. But one need not think of a glass; Bottcher has rightly said that one might perceive the glittering appearance also in a metal or earthen vessel if one looked into it. The Chethib p32 is an error of transcription; the Midrash makes the remark on this, that D°D2 fits the wine merchant, and Di33 the wine drinker. From the pleasure of the eye, 315 passes over to the pleasures of the taste: (that, or, as it) goeth down smoothly (Luther); the expression is like Eccles. vii. 10. Instead of 45n (like jary, of fluidity) there stands here ἽΡΠΠΠ, commonly used of pleasant going; and instead of pwnd with 5, the norm pnwna with 2 of the manner; directness is here easiness, facility (Arab. jusr); it goes as on a straight, even way unhindered and easily down the throat.’

Ver. 32 shows how it issues with the wine, viz. with those who immoderately enjoy it. [5 in“ Ns [its end] here the subject, as at v. 4? We must in that case interpret qe and v5’ as attributives, as the Syr. and Targ. translate the latter, and Ewald both. The issue which it brings with it is like the serpent which bites, etc., and there is nothing syntactically opposed to this (cf. eg. Ps. xvii. 12); the future, in contradistinction to the participle, would not express properties, but intimations of facts. But the end of the wine is not likea serpent, but like the bite of a serpent. The wine itself, and

1 The English version is, ‘‘ when it moveth itself aright,” which one has perceived in the phenomenon of the tears of the wine, or of the movement in the glass. Vid. Ausland, 1869, p. 72.

independent of its consequences, is in and of itself like a serpent. In accordance with the matter, inns may be interpreted, with Hitzig (after Jerome, in novissimo), aS acc. adverb, = ΝΣ, Jer. xvii. 11. But why did not the author more distinctly write this word 's2?_ The syntactic relation is like xxix. 21: inns is after the manner of a substantival clause, the subject to that which follows as its virtual predicate: “its end is: like a serpent it biteth = this, that it biteth like a serpent.” Regarding “YB¥, serpens requlus (after Schultens, from yay = (Arab.) saf’, to breathe out glowing, scorching), vid. at Isa. vii. 8. The Hiph. vpn Schultens here understands of the division of the liver, and Hitzig, after the LXX., Vulgate, and Venet., of squirting the poison; both after the Arab. farth. But wan, Syr. afrés, also signifies, from the root-idea of dividing and splitting, to sting, poindre, pointer, as Rashi and Kimchi gloss, whence the Aram. 73, an ox-goad, with which the ancients connect wp (of the spur), the name for a rider, egues, and also a horse (cf. on the contrary, Fleischer in Levy, W. B. ii. 574); aserpent’s bite and a serpent’s sting (Lat. morsus, ictus, Varro: cum pepugerit colubra) are connected together by the ancients.!

The excited condition of the drunkard is now described. First, ver. 33 describes the activity of his imagination as excited to madness. It is untenable to interpret nint here with Rashi, Aben Ezra, and others, and to translate with Luther: “so shall thine eyes look after other women” (circumspicient mulieres impudicas, Fleischer, for the meaning to perceive, to look about for something, to seek something with the eyes, referring to Gen. xli. 88). For nt acquires the meaning of mulieres impudice only from its surrounding, but here the parallel nizpn (perverse things) directs to the neut. aliena (cf. xv. 28, ΓΝ), but not merely in the sense of unreal things (Ralbag, Meiri), but: strange, i.e. abnormal, thus bizarre, mad, dreadful things. An old Heb. parable compares the changing circumstances which wine produces with the man-

1 However, we will not conceal it, that the post-bibl. Heb. does not know w47 in the sense of to prick, sting (the Midrash explains the passage by ond OND 2 wn, ze. it cuts off life); and the Nestorian Knanishu of Superghan, whom I asked regarding aphrish, knew only of the meanings ** to separate” and ‘‘to point out,” but not ‘ to sting.”

ner of the lamb, the lion, the swine, the monkey; here juggles and phantoms of the imagination are meant, which in the view and fancy of the drunken man hunt one another like monkey capers. Moreover, the state of the drunken man is one that is separated from the reality of a life of sobriety and the safety of a life of moderation, 34a: thou act like one who lies in the heart of the sea. Thus to lie in the heart, 1.6. the midst, of the sea as a ship goes therein, xxx. 19, is impossible; there one must swim; but swimming is not lying, and to think ona situation like that of Jonah, i. 5, one must think also of the ship; but 23” does not necessarily mean “ to sleep,” and, besides, the sleep of a passenger in the cabin on the high sea is of itself no dangerous matter. Rightly Hitzig: in the depth of the sea (cf. Jonah ii. 4)—the drunken man, or the man overcome by wine (Isa. xxviii. 7), is like one who has sunk down into the midst of the sea; and thus drowned, or in danger of being drowned, he is in a condition of intellectual confusion, which finally passes over into perfect unconsciousness, cut off from the true life which passes over him like one dead, and in this condition he has made a bed for himself, as 33% denotes. With 33, WN stands in complete contrast: he is like one who lies on the top of the mast. ban, after the forms 314, Dv, is the sail-yard fastened by ropes, aan (Isa. xxxiil. 23). To lay oneself down on the sail-yard happens thus to no one, and it is no place for such a purpose; but as little as one can quarter him who is on the ridge of the roof, in the “Alija, because no one is able to lie down there, so little can he in the bower [Mastkorb] him who is here spoken of (Bottcher). The poet says, but only by way of comparison, how critical the situation of the drunkard is; he compares him to one who lies on the highest sail-yard, and is exposed to the danger of being every moment thrown into the sea; for the rocking of the ship is the greater in proportion to the height of the sail-yard. The drunkard is, indeed, thus often exposed to the peril of his life; for an accident of itself not great, or a stroke, may suddenly put an end to his life.

Ver. 35. The poet represents the drunken man as now speaking to himself. He has been well cudgelled; but because insensible, he has not felt it, and he places himself now where he will sleep out his intoxication. Far from being made temperate by the strokes inflicted on him, he rejoices in the prospect, when he has awaked out of his sleep, of beginning again the life of drunkenness and revelry which has become a pleasant custom to him. nen means not only to be sick, but generally to be, or to become, affected painfully; cf. Jer. v. 3, where 391 is not the 3d pl. mas. of 2n, but of abn. The words PPS ‘ND are, it is true, a cry of longing of a different kind from Job vii. 4. The sleeping man cannot forbear from yielding to the constraint of nature: he is no longer master of himself, he becomes giddy, everything goes round about with him, but he thinks with himself: Oh that I were again awake! and 80 little has his appetite been appeased by his sufferings, that when he is again awakened, he will begin where he left off yesterday, when he could drink no more. ‘MN is here, after Nolde, Fleischer, and Hitzig, the relative quando (quum); but the bibl. usus log. gives no authority for this. In that case we would have expected “nis’7" instead of ΤΡ. As the interrog. spy is more animated than the relat., so also 3WP3X ἢ ΟΝ is more animated (1 Sam. ii. 3) than vip2 ΟΝ, The suffix of Ἰ) 3: refers to the wine: raised up, he will seek that which has become so dear and so necessary to him.

After this divergence (in vers. 29-35) from the usual form of the proverb, there is now a return to the tetrastich:

xxiv. 1 Envy not evil men, And desire not to have intercourse with them. 2 For their heart thinketh of violence,

And their lips speak mischief. The warning, not to envy the godless, is also found at iii. 31, xxiil. 17, xxiv. 19, but is differently constructed in each of these passages. Regarding ISNA with Pathach, vid. at xxii. 3. AY woe (cf. YI, xxviii. 5) are the wicked, ἐ.6. such as cleave to evil, and to whom evil clings. The warning is grounded in this, that whoever have intercourse with such men, make themselves partners in greater sins and evil: for their heart broodeth (write Ἢ "3, Munach Dechi) violence, i.e. robbery, plunder, destruction, murder, and the like. With 1 (in the Mishle only here and at xxi. 7, cf. TY, xix. 26) connects itself elsewhere DN, here (cf. Hab. i. 3) δον, labor, molestia, viz. those who prepare it for others by means of slanderous, crafty, uncharitable talk.

Vers. 3, 4. The warning against fellowship with the godless is followed by the praise of wisdom, which is rooted in the fear

Ver. 3 By wisdom is the house builded, And by understanding is it established. 4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled With all manner of precious and pleasant goods.

What is meant by the “ building of the house” is explained at xiv. 1. It is wisdom, viz. that which originates from God, which is rooted in fellowship with Him, by which every household, be it great or small, prospers and attains to a successful and flourishing state; }2)3, as parallel word to 723 (iii. 19; Hab. ii. 12), is related to it as statuere to extruere; the Hithpal (as at Num. xxi. 17) means to keep oneself in a state of continuance, to gain perpetuity, to become established. That N71) by Athnach has not passed over into the pausal γέρον, arises from this, that the Athnach, by the poetical system of accents, has only the force of the prose accent Sake’; the clause completes itself only by 40; the pausal form on that account also is not found, and it is discontinued, because the Athnach does not produce any pausal effect (vid. at Ps. xlv. 6). The form of expression in ver. 4 is like 1. 13, 11. 10. But the ὉΠ, of storerooms (LX X. as Isa. xxvi. 20, ταμιεῖα), and Ὁ Ὁ), like xxii. 18, xxiii. 8, is peculiar to this collection.

Vers. 5, 6. The praise of wisdom is continued: it brings blessings in the time of peace, and gives the victory in war.

Ver. 5 A wise man is full of strength; And a man of understanding showeth great power. 6 For with wise counsel shalt thou carry on successful war;

And safety is where counsellors are not wanting. The 3 of tiy2 (thus with Pathach in old impressions, Cod. 1294, Cod. Jaman., and elsewhere with the Masoretic note xdvy m) introduces, as that of 33, Ps. xxix. 4, the property in which a person or thing appears; the article (cf. D's, ii. 13, Gesen. ὃ 35, 2A) is that of gender. The parallel n> yoxn, a Greek translates by ὑπὲρ κραταιὸν ἰσχύϊ = 1D OX (Job ix. 4; Isa. xl. 26). But after 5a it lies nearer that the poet means to express the power which lies in wisdom itself (Eccles. vii. 19), and its superiority to physical force (xxi, 22); the LXX., Syr., and Targ. also, it is true, translate 5a as if WD (pre potente) were the words used. 5 78 means to strengthen the strength, and that is (Nah. ii. 2) equivalent to, to collect the strenoth (to take courage), here and at Amos ii. 14, to show strong (superior) strength. The reason is gathered from xx. 180 and xi. 146. The 1 here added, Hitzig is determined to read nvyn: for with prudent counsel the war shall be carried out by thee. The construction of the passive with 5 of the subject is correct in Heb. (vid. at xiv. 20) as well as in Aram.,’ and niyy frequently means, in a pregnant sense: to complete, to carry out, to bring to an end; but the phrase nondy ΠῸΝ means always to carry on war, and nothing further. 1 is the dat. commod., asin? DN), to wage war (to contend) for any one, e.g. Ex. xiv. 14, Instead of 372, the LXX. reads 352; regarding γεωργίου μεγάλου for n> yoxd, without doubt a corrupt reading, vid. Lagarde.

Till now in this appendix we have found only two distichs (vid. vol. i. p. 17); now several of them follow. From this, that wisdom is a power which accomplishes great things, it follows that it is of high value, though to the fool it appears all too costly.

Ver. 7 Wisdom seems to the fool to be an ornamental commodity; He openeth not his mouth in the gate. Most interpreters take ΠΝ Ἢ for ninn (written as at 1 Chron. vi. 58; cf. Zech. xiv. 10; 1, Prov. x. 4; OxP, Hos. x. 14), and translate, as Jerome and Luther: “ Wisdom is to ‘the fool too high;” the way to wisdom is to him too long and too steep, the price too costly, and not to be afforded. Certainly this thought does not lie far distant from what the poet would say; but why does he say Nid3n, and not m3n? This myn is not a numerical plur., so as to be translated with the Venet.: μετέωροι Te ἄφρονι ai ἐπιστῆμαι; it is a plur., as Ps. xlix. 4 shows; but, as is evident from the personification and the construction, 1, 20, one inwardly multiplying and heightening, which is related to non as science or the contents of knowledge is to knowledge. That this plur. comes here into view 1 Vid. Noldeke’s Neusyrische Gram. p. 219, Anm., and p. 416, as in i—ix. (vid. vol. 1. p. 34), is definitely accounted for in these chapters by the circumstance that wisdom was to be desionated, which is the mediatriz of all wisdom; here, to be designated in intentional symphony with mmx1, whose plur. ending 6th shall be for that very reason, however, inalienable. Thus mx will be the name of a costly foreign bijouterie, which is mentioned in the Book of Job, where the unfathomableness and inestimableness of wisdom is celebrated; vid. Job xxvil. 18, where we have recorded what we had to say at the time regarding this word. But what is now the meaning of the saying that wisdom is to the fool a pearl or precious coral? Joél Bril explains: “The fool uses the sciences like a precious stone, only for ornament, but he knows not how to utter a word publicly.” ‘This is to be rejected, because myx is not so usual a trinket or ornament as to serve as an expression of this thought. The third of the comparison lies in the rarity, costliness, unattainableness; the fool despises wisdom, because the expenditure of strength and the sacrifices of all kinds which are necessary to put one into the possession of wisdom deter him from it (Rashi). This is also the sense which the expression has when ΤῊΝ Ἢ τ ΓΛ ἢ and probably for the sake of this double meaning the poet chose just this word, and not O25, 2), or any other name, for articles of ornament (Hitzig). The Syr. has incorrectly interpreted this play upon words: sapientia abjecta stulto; and the Targumist: the fool grumbles (O/7n1D) against wisdom.’ He may also find the grapes to be sour because they hang too high for him; here it is only said that wisdom remains at a distance from him because he cannot soar up to its attainment; for that very reason he does not open his mouth in the gate, where the council and the representatives of the people have their seats: he has not the knowledge necessary for being associated in counselling, and thus must keep silent; and this is indeed the most prudent thing he can do.

1 This explanation is more correct than Levy’s: he lifts himself up (boasts) with wisdom.

A verbal explanation and definition like xxi. 24 (cf. vol. i. p. 40), formed like xvi. 21 from 2). Instead of ΟΡ [lord of mischief] in xii. 2, the expression is 2 WS (cf. at xxii. 24). Regarding miord in its usual sense, vid. v. 2. Such definitions have of course no lexicographical, but only a moral aim. ‘That which is here given is designed to warn one against gaining for himself this ambiguous title of a refined (cunning, versutus) man; oue is so named whose schemes and endeavours are directed to the doing of evil. One may also inversely find the turning-point of the warning in 8b: “ he who projects deceitful plans against the welfare of others, finds his punishment in this, that he falls under public condemnation as a worthless intricuer” (Elster). But mmty is a ῥῆμα μέσον, vid. v. 2; the title is thus equivocal, and the turning-point lies in the bringing out of his kernel: yanp awnt> = meditating to do evil.

Ver. 9. This proverb is connected by net with ver. 8, and by Sux with ver. 7; it places the fool and the mocker over against one another.

The undertaking of folly is sin; And an abomination to men is tae scorner. Since it is certain that for 96 the subject is “the scorner,” so also “sin” is to be regarded as the subject of 9a. The special meaning flagitium, as xxi. 27, 721 will then not have here, but it derives it from the root-idea “to contrive, imagine,” and signifies first only the collection and forthputting of the thoughts towards a definite end (Job xvii. 11), particularly the refined preparation, the contrivance of a sinful act. In a similar way we speak of a sinful beginning or undertaking. But if one regards sin in itself, or in its consequences, it is always a contrivance or desire of folly (gen. subjecti), or: one that bears on itself (gen. qualitatis) the character of folly; for it disturbs and destroys the relation of man to God and man, and rests, as Socrates in Plato says, on a false calculation. And the mocker (the mocker at religion and virtue) is pine nayin. The form of combination stands here before a word with rf as at Job xviii. 2, xxiv. 5, and frequently. But why does not the poet say directly ΝΣ nayyn? Perhaps to leave room for the double sense, that the mocker is not only an abomination to men, viz. to the better disposed; but also, for he makes others err as to their faith, and draws them into his frivolous thoughts, becomes to them a cause of abomination,.6. of such conduct and of such thoughts as are an abomination before God (xv. 9, 26).

Ver. 10. The last of these four distichs stands without visible connection:

Hast thou shown thyself slack in the day of adversity, Then is thy strength small.

The perf. 10a is the hypothetic, vid. at xxii. 29. If a man shows himself remiss (xvill. 9), ὁ.6.. changeable, timorous, incapable of resisting in times of difficulty, then shall he draw - therefrom the conclusion which is expressed in 103. Rightly Luther, with intentional generalization, “ he is not strong who is not firm in need.” But the address makes the proverb an earnest admonition, which speaks to him who shows himself weak the judgment which he has to pronounce on himself. And the paronomasia 7¥ and ἫΝ may be rendered, where possible, ‘if thy strength becomes, as it were, pressed together and bowed down by the difficulty just when it ought to show itself (viz. 1? an»), then it is limited, thou art a weakling.” Thus Fleischer accordingly, translating: si segnis fueris die angustia, anguste sunt vires tue. Hitzig, on the contrary, corrects after Job vii. 11, 79, “ Klemm (klamm) ist dein Mut” [ =strait is thy courage]. Andwhy? Of no [strength], he remarks, one can say vin [it is weak] (Ps. xxxi. 11), but scarcely Ἣν [strait, straitened]; for force is exact, and only the region of its energy may be wide or narrow. ‘To this we answer, that certainly of strength in itself we cannot use the word n> in the sense here required; the confinement (limitation) may rather be, as with a stream, Isa. lix. 19, the increasing (heightening) of its intensity. But if the strength is in itself anything definite, then on the other hand its expression is something linear, and the force in view of its expression is that which is here called Ἣν, 7.e. not extending widely, not expanding, not inaccessible. ἫΝ is all to which narrow limits are applied. A little strength is limited, because it is little also in its expression.

Now, again, we meet with proverbs of several lines. The first here is a hexastich:

Ver. 11 Deliver them that are taken to death, And them that are tottering to destruction, oh stop them!

It is not so: The Weigher of hearts, who sees through it, And He that observeth thy soul, He knoweth it, And requiteth man according to his work.

If Dx is interpreted as a particle of adjuration, then jivnm-ox is equivalent to: I adjure thee, forbear not (cf. Neh. xiii. 25 with Isa. lviii. 1), viz. that which thou hast to do, venture all on it (LXX., Syr., Jerome). But the parallelism requires us to take together sn? oD’! (such as with tottering steps are led forth to destruction) as object along with ἽΠΠΩΝ, as well as mad pnp (such as from their condition are carried away to death, cf. Ex. xiv. 11) as object to oui, in which all the old interpreters have recognised the imper., but none the infin. (ertpere... ne cesses, which is contrary to Heb. idiom, both in the position of the words and in the construction). ow also is not to be interpreted as an interrogative; for, thus expressed, an retinetis ought rather to have for the converse the meaning: thou shalt indeed not do it! (cf. e.g. Isa. xxix. 16.) And ox cannot be conditional: sé prohibere poteris (Michaelis and others), forthe fut. after Ox has never the sense of a potential. Thus ow is, like 35, understood in the sense of utinam, as it is used not merely according to later custom (Hitzig), but from ancient times (cf. eg. Ex. xxxii. 32 witb Gen. xxiii. 13). IOXN™3 (reminding" us of the same formula of the Rabbinical writings) introduces an objection, excuse, evasion, which is met by Non; introducing “ so say I on the contrary,” it is of itself a reply, vid. Deut. vii. 17 f. ΠῚ we will not have to interpret personally (L-X-X. τοῦτον); for, since ver. 11 speaks of several of them, the neut. rendering (Syr., Targ., Venet., Luther) in itself lies nearer, and mt, hoc, after "1", is also in conformity with the usus log.; vid. at Ps. lvi. 10. But the neut. ΠῚ does not refer to the moral obligation expressed in ver. 11; to save human life when it is possible to do so, can be unknown to no one, wherefore Jerome (as if the words of the text were 17) ON? pS ΠῚ): vires non suppetunt. nt refers to the fact that men are led to the tribunal; only thus is explained the change of ‘ny, which was to be expected, into 27: the objection is, that one certainly did not know, viz. that matters had come to an extremity with them, and that a short process will be made with them. ΤῸ this excuse, with pretended ignorance, the reply of the omniscient God stands opposed, and suggests to him who makes the excuse to consider: It is not so: the Searcher of hearts (vid. at xvi. 2), He sees through it, viz. what goes on in thy heart, and He has thy soul under His inspection (739, as Job vii. 20; LXX. καὶ ὁ πλάσας; 181, which Hitzig prefers, for he thinks that ἽΝ) must be interpreted in the sense of to guard, preserve; Luther rightly); He knows, viz., how it is with thy mind, He looks through it, He knows (cf. for both, Ps. exxxix. 1-4), and renders to man according to his conduct, which, without being deceived, He judges according to the state of the heart, out of which the conduct springs. It is to be observed that ver. 11 speaks of one condemned to death generally, and not expressly of one innocently condemned, and makes no distinction between one condemned in war and in peace. One sees from this that the Chokma generally has no pleasure in this, that men are put to death by men, not even when it is done legally as punishment foracrime. For, on the one side, it is true that the punishment of the murderer by death is a law proceeding from the nature of the divine holiness and the inviolability of the divine ordinance, and the worth of man as formed in the image of God, and that the magistrate who disowns this law as a law, disowns the divine foundation of his office; but, on the other side, it is just as true that thousands and thousands of innocent persons, or at least persons not worthy of death, have fallen a sacrifice to the abuse or the false application of this law; and that along with the principle of recompensative righteousness, there is a principle of grace which rules in the kingdom of God, and is represented in the O. T. by prophecy and the Chokma. It is, moreover, a noticeable fact, that God did not visit with the punishment of death the first murderer, the murderer of the innocent Abel, his brother, but let the principle of grace so far prevail instead of that of law, that He even protected his life against any avenger of blood. But after that the moral ruin of the human race had reached that height which brought the Deluge over the earth, there was promulgated to the post-diluvians the word of the law, Gen. ix. 6, sanctioning this inviolable right of putting to death by the hand of justice. The conduct of God regulates itself thus according to the aspect of the times. In the Mosaic law the greatness of guilt was estimated not externally (cf. Num. xxxv. 31), but internally, a very flexible limitation in its practical bearings. And that under certain circumstances grace might have the precedence of justice, the parable having in view the pardon of Absalom (2 Sam. xiv.) shows. But a word from God, like Ezek. xviii. 23, raises grace to a principle, and the word with which Jesus (John viii. 11) dismisses the adulteress is altogether an expression of this purpose of grace passing beyond the purpose of justice. In the later Jewish commonwealth, criminal justice was subordinated to the principle of predominating compassion; practical effect was given to the consideration of the value of human life during the trial, and even after the sentence was pronounced, and during a long time no sentence of death was passed by the Sanhedrim. But Jesus, who was Himself the innocent victim of a fanatical legal murder, adjudged, it is true, the supremacy to the sword; but He preached and practised love, which publishes grace for justice. He was Himself incarnate Love, offering Himself for sinners, the Mercy which Jahve proclaims by Ezek. xviii. 23. The so-called Christian state [‘ Civitas Dei” is indeed in manifest opposition to this, But Augustine declares himself, on the supposition that the principle of grace must penetrate the new era, in all its conditions, that began with Christianity, for the suspension of punishment by death, especially because the heathen magistrates had abused the instrument of death, which, according to divine right, they had control over, to the destruction of Christians; and Ambrosius went so far as to impress it as a duty on a Christian judge who had pronounced the sentence of death, to exclude himself from the Holy Supper. The magisterial control over life and death had at tliat time gone to the extreme height of bloody violence, and thus in a certain degree it destroyed itself. Therefore Jansen changes the proverb (ver. 11) with the words of Ambrosius into the admonition: Quando indulgentia non nocet publico, eripe intercessione, eripe gratia tu sacerdos, aut tu imperator eripe subscriptione indulgentie. When Samuel Romilly’s Bill to abolish the punishment of death for a theft amounting to the sum of five shillings passed the English House of Commons, it was thrown out by a majority in the House of Lords. Among those who voted against the Bill were one archbishop and five bishops. Our poet here in the Proverbs is of a different mind. Even the law of Sinai appoints the punishment of death only for man-stealing. The Mosaic code is incomparably milder than even yet the Carolina. In expressions, however, like the above, a true Christian spirit rules the spirit which condemns all blood-thirstiness of justice, and calls forth to a crusade not only against the inquisition, but also against such unmerciful, cruel executions even as they prevailed in Prussia in the name of law in the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm 1., the Inexorable.

Vers. 13, 14. The proverb now following stands in no obvious relation with the preceding. But in both a commencement is made with two lines, which contain, in the former, the principal thought; in this here, its reason:

Ver. 13 My son, eat honey, for it is good, And honeycomb is sweet to thy taste. 14 So apprehend wisdom for thy soul: When thou hast found it, there is a future, And thy hope is not destroyed.

After its nearest fundamental thought, ain, Arab. tejjib, means that which smells and tastes well; honey (732, from 24, to be thick, consistent) has, besides, according to the old idea (e.g. in the Koran), healing virtue, as in general bitterness is viewed as a property of the poisonous, and sweetness that of the wholesome. 53} is second accus. dependent on “DDR, for honey and honeycomb were then spoken of as different; M5) (from ni, to pour, to flow out) is the purest honey (virgin-honey), flowing of itself out of the comb. With right the accentuation takes 135 as independent, the substantival clause containing the reason, “ for it is good:” honeycomb is sweet to thy taste, i.e. applying itself to it with the impression of sweetness; 2, as at Neh. ii. 5; Ps. xvi. 6 (Hitzig).

In the {3 of 14a, it is manifest that ver. 13 is not spoken for its own sake. ΤῸ apprehend wisdom, is elsewhere equivalent to, to receive it into the mind, i. 2, Eccles. i. 17 (cf. 43:2 ny, iv. 1, and frequently), according to which Bottcher also here explains: learn to understand wisdom. But 15 unfolds itself in 14bc: even as honey has for the body, so wisdom has for the soul, beneficent wholesome effects. mp3n nyt is thus not absolute, but is meant in relation to these effects. Rightly Fleischer: talem reputa; Ewald: sic (talem) scito sapientiam (esse) anime tue, know, recognise wisdom as something advantageous to thy soul, and worthy of commendation. Incorrectly Hitzig explains NN¥D-DN, “ if the opportunity presents itself.” Apart from this, that in such a case the words would rather have been 8¥N 3, to find wisdom is always equivalent to, to obtain it, to make it one’s own, 111. 13, viii. 35; cf. ii. 5, viii. 9. “YI? stands for M4, after the form 71; ΠΩ (after Bottcher, ὃ 396, not without the influence of the following commencing sound), cf. the similar transitions of — into — placed together at Ps. xx. 4; the form ΠΡ is also found, but nyt is the form in the Cod. Hilleli,? as confirmed by Moses Kimchi in Comm., and by David Kimchi, Michlol101b. With vw begins the apodosis (LX X., Jerome, Targ., Luther, Rashi, Ewald, and others). In itself, uw (cf. Gen. xlvii. 6) might also continue the conditional clause; but the explanation, sz inveneris (eam) et ad postremum ventum erit (Fleischer, Bertheau, Zockler), has this against it, that NINN &* does not mean: the end comes, but: there is an end, xxiii. 18; cf. xix. 18; here: there is an end for thee, viz. an issue that is a blessed reward. The promise is the same as at xxiii. 18. In our own language we speak of the hope of one being cut off; (Arab.) jaz’a, to be cut off, is equivalent to, to give oneself up to despair.

Ver. 15 Lie not in wait, oh wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Assault not his resting-place. 16 For seven times doth the righteous fall and rise again, But the wicked are overthrown when calamity falls on them.

The 258 [lying in wait] and T71¥ [practising violence], against which the warning is here given, are not directed, as ati. 11, xix. 26, immediately against the person, but against the dwell- ing-place and resting-place (72), 6.0. Jer. 1. 6, as also 3, iil. 33) of the righteous, who, on his part, does injustice and wrong to no one; the warning is against coveting his house, Ex. xx. 17, and driving him by cunning and violence out of it. Instead of yw, Symmachus and Jerome have incorrectly read yw", and from this misunderstanding have here introduced a sense without sense into ver. 15; many interpreters (Lowenstein, Ewald, Elster, and Zéckler) translate with Luther appositionally: as a wicked man, i.e. “ with mischievous intent,” like one stealthily lurking for the opportunity of taking possession of the dwell- - ing of another, as if this could be done with a good intent: yun is the vocative (Syr., Targ., Venet.: ἀσεβές), and this address (cf. Ps. Ixxv. 5 f.) sharpens the warning, for it names him who acts inthis manner by the right name. The reason, 16a, sounds like an echo of Job v. 19. ¥2¥ signifies, as at Ps. cxix. 164, seven times; cf. MND, xvii. 10. 2) (not OP%) is perf. consec., as “ΠῚ, e.g. Gen. iii, 22: and he rises afterwards (notwithstanding), but the transgressors come toruin; 73, if a misfortune befall them (cf. xiv. 32), they stumble and fall, and rise no more.

Vers. 17, 18. Warning against a vindictive disposition, and joy over its satisfaction.

Ver. 17 At the fall of thine enemy rejoice not, And at his overthrow let not thine heart be glad; 18 That Jabve see it not, and it be displeasing to Him,

And He turns away His anger from Him. The Chethib, which in itself, as the plur. of category, TIS, might be tolerable, has 170 against it: with right, all interpreters adhere to the Keri 12's (with ὁ from @ in doubled close syllable, as in the like Keri, 1 Sam. xxiv. 5). wan, for Dviann, is the syncope usual in the inf. Niph. and Hiph., which in Niph. occurs only once with the initial guttural (as 9Dy2) or half guttural (nixn?). YN is not adj. here as at 1 Sam. xxv. 3, but. perf. with the force of a fué. (Symmachus: καὶ μὴ ἀρέσῃ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ). 'The proverb extends the duty of love even to an enemy; for it requires that we do good to him and not evil, and warns against rejoicing when evil befalls him. Hitzig, indeed, supposes that the noble morality which is expressed in ver. 17 is limited to a moderate extent by the motive assigned in 180. Certainly the poet means to say that God could easily give a gracious turn for the better, as to the punishment of the wicked, to the decree of his anger against his enemy; but his meaning is not this, that one, from joy at the misfortune of others, ought to desist from interrupting the process of the destruction of his enemy, and let it go on to its end; but much rather, that one ought to abstain from this joy, so as not to experience the manifestation of God’s displeasure thereat, by His granting grace to him against whom we rejoice to see God’s anger go forth. Vers. 19, 20. Warning against envying the godless for their

20 For the wicked men shall have no future, The light of the godless is extinguished.

Ver. 19 is a variation of Ps. xxxvii. 1; cf. also iii, 21 (where with 1375-593 following the traditional snan is more appropriate than snnn, which Hupfeld would here insert), NNN is fut. apoc. of MN, to be heated (to be indignant), distinguished from the Tiphel 71MM, to be jealous. The ground and occasion of being enraged, and on the other side, of jealousy or envy, is the prosperity of the godless, Ps. Ixxiii. 3; cf. Jer. xii. 1. This anger at the apparently unrighteous division of fortune, this jealousy at the success in which the godless rejoice, rest on short-sightedness, which regards the present, and looks not on to the end. MNS, merely as in the expression ‘ns wv, 146 (cf. Ps. xxxvii. 37), always denotes the happy, glorious issue indemnifying for past sufferings. Such an issue the wicked man has not; his light burns brightly on this side, but one day it is extinguished. In 200 is repeated xiii. 9; cf. xx. 20.

Vers. 21, 22. A warning against rebellious thoughts against

And involve not thyself with those who are otherwise disposed; 22 For suddenly their calamity ariseth,

1 This proverb, according to Aboth iv. 24, was the motto of that Samuel with the surname wpN, who formulated p32 N73 (the interpolation in the Schemone-Esre prayer directed against the schismatics): he thus distinguished between private enemies and the enemies of the truth,

The verb 73%, proceeding from the primary idea of folding (complicare, duplicare), signifies transitively to do twice, to repeat, xvii. 9, xxvi. 11, according to which Kimchi here inappropriately thinks on relapsing; and intransitively, to change, to be different, Esth. i. 7, iii. 8. The Syr. and Targ. translate the word “DY, fools; but the Kal (i2YD) ΠΡ occurs, indeed, in the Syr., but not in the Heb., in the meaning alienata est (mens ejus); and besides, this meaning, alient, is not appropriate here. A few, however, with Saadia (cf. Deutsch-Morgenldndische Zettschr. xxi. 616), the dualists (Manichees), understand it in a dogmatic sense; but then ὩΣ δ᾽ must be denom. of 0!2¥, while much more it is its root-word. Hither ow means those who change, novantes = novarum rerum studiosi, which is, however, exposed to this objection, that the Heb. mv, in the transitive sense to change, does not elsewhere occur; or it means, according to the usus log., diversos=diversum sentientes (C. B. Mithaelis and others), and that with reference to 2la: o nnn ono) ὉΠ 2 (Meiri, Immanuel), or ΠΟΘΙ aA Ow (Ahron Ὁ. Joseph). Thus they are called (for it is a common name of a particular class of men) dissidents, oppositionists, or revolutionaries, who recognise neither the monarchy of Jahve, the King of kings, nor that of the earthly king, which perhaps Jerome here means by the word detractoribus ἴτε detractatoribus). The Venet. incorrectly, σὺν τοῖς μισοῦσι, 1... ONY. With 3 at xiv. 10, 22YN7 meant to mix oneself up with something, here with DY, to mix oneself with some one, 7.e. to make common cause with him.

The reason assigned in ver. 22 is, that although such persons as reject by thought and action human and divine law may for a long time escape punishment, yet suddenly merited ruin falls on them. ‘1S is, according to its primary signification, weighty, oppressive misfortune, vid. 1. 27. In D3p' it is thought of as hostile power (Hos. x. 14); or the rising up of God as Judge (e.g. Isa. xxxiii. 10) is transferred to the means of executing judgment. TS (= ἫΒ of NA or WH, Arab. fad, fut. jafidu or jafidu, a stronger power of badd, cogn. 138) is destruction (Arab. feid, fid, death); this word occurs, besides here, only thrice in the Book of Job. But to what does D7 refer? Certainly not to Jahve and the king (LXX., Schultens, Umbreit,and Bertheau), for in itself it is doubtful to interpret the genit. after 5 as designating the subject, but improper to comprehend God and man under one cipher. Rather it may refer to two, of whom one class refuse to God, the other to the king, the honour that is due (Jerome, Luther, and at last Zockler); but in the foregoing, two are not distinguished, and the want of reverence for God, and for the magistrates appointed by Him, is usually met with, because standing in interchangeable relationship, in one and the same persons. Is there some misprint then in this word? Ewald suggests 07°, i.e. of those who show themselves as D'¥ (altercatores) towards God and the king. In view of O72P, Ex. xxxii. 25, this brevity of expression must be regarded as possible. But if this were the meaning of the word, then it ought to have stood in the first member (7's nmov), and not in the second. No other conjecture presents itself. Thus 07°3¥ is perhaps to be referred to the Di’, and those who engage with them: join thyself not with the opposers; for suddenly misfortune will come upon them, and the destruction of both (of themselves and their partisans), who knows it? But that also is not satisfactory, for after the address 032% was to have been expected, 226. Nothing remains, therefore, but to understand ὉΠ Ν᾽, with the Syr. and Tar σι as at Job xxxvi. 11; the proverb falis into rhythms DRAB hd ΤῈ, Ὁ and Dw, But “the end of their year” is not antiivelunt to the hour of their death (Hitzig), because for this ΘΒ (cf. Arab. feid and jid, death) was necessary; but to the expiring, the vanishing, the passing by of the year during which they have succeeded in maintaining their ground and playing a part. There will commence a time which no one knows beforehand when all is over with them. In this sense, “who knoweth,” with its object, is equivalent to “suddenly ariseth,” with its subject. In the LXX., after xxiv. 22, there follow one distich of the relations of man to the word of God as deciding their fate, one distich of fidelity as a duty towards the king, and the duty of the king, and one pentastich or hexastich of the power of the tongue and of the anger of the king. The Heb. text knows nothing of these three proverbs. Ewald has, Jahrb. xi. 18 f., attempted to translate them into Heb., and is of opinion that they are worthy of being regarded as original component parts of i.-xxix., and that they ought certainly to have come in after xxiv. 22. We doubt this originality, but recognise their translation from the Heb. Then follows in the LXX. the series of Proverbs, xxx. 1-14, which in the Heb. text bear the superscription of “the Words of Agur;” the second half of the “ Words of Agur,” together with the “ Words of Lemuel,” stand after xxiv. 34 of the Heb. text. The state of the matter is this, that in the copy from which the Alexandrines translated the Appendix xxx.—xxxi. 9, stood half of it, after the “ Words of the Wise” [which extend from. xxii. 17 to xxiv. 22], and half after the supplement headed “these also are from wise men” [xxiv. 23-34], so that only the proverbial ode in praise of the excellent matron [xxxi. 10] remains as an appendix to the Book of Hezekiah’s collection, XXV.—XXIX.

There now follows a brief appendix to the older Book of Proverbs, bearing the superscription, 23a, “ These also are from wise men, t.e. also the proverbs here following originate from wise men. The old translators (with the exception of Luther) have not understood this superscription; they mistake the Lamed auctoris, and interpret the 5 as that of address: also these (proverbs) I speak to wise men, sapientibus (LXX., Syr., Targ., Jerome, Venet.). The formation of the superscription is like that of the Hezekiah collection, xxv. 1, and from this and other facts we have concluded (vid. vol. i. pp. 26, 27) that this second supplement originated from the same source as the extension of the older Book of Proverbs, by the appending of the more recent, and its appendices. The linguistic complexion of the proverbs here and there resembles that of the first appendix (cf. 29d with 12d, and oy, 25a, with py), xxii, 18, xxiii. 8, xxiv. 4); but, on the other hand, 23d refers back to xxviii. 21 of the Hezekiah collection, and in ver. 83f. is repeated vi. 10f. This appendix thus acknowledges its secondary character; the poet in minute details stands in the same relation to the Solomonic Mashal as that in which in general he stands to the author of the Introduction, i.-ix. That 23 is not in itself a proverb, we have already (vol. i. p. 6) proved; it is the first line of a hexastich (vid. vol. i. p. 16). Vers. 236-25. The curse of partiality and the blessing of impartiality: Respect of persons in judgment is by no means good: 24 He that saith to the guilty, ‘‘ Thou art in the right,” Him the people curse, nations detest.

25 But to them who rightly decide, it is well, And upon them cometh blessing with good.

Partiality is either called Ὁ ΠΝ, xviii. 5, respect to the person, for the partisan looks with pleasure on the 55, the countenance, appearance, personality of one, by way of preference; or “39 Ὦ)5, as here and at xxviii. 21, for he places one person before another in his sight, or, as we say, has a regard to him; the latter expression is found in Deut. i. 17, xvi. 19. 37 (vid. xx. 11) means to regard sharply, whether from interest in the object, or because it is strange. 53. Heidenheim regards as weaker than Nd; but the reverse is the case (vid. vol. i. p. 204), as is seen from the derivation of this negative (= balj, from nba, to melt, to decay); thus it does not occur anywhere else than here with the pred. adj. ‘The two supplements delight in this $3, xxii. 29, xxiii. 7, 35. The thesis 235 is now confirmed in vers. 24 and 25, from the consequences of this partiality and its opposite: He that saith (\028, with Mehuppach Legarmeh from the last syllable, as rightly by Athias, Nissel, and Michaelis, vid. Thorath Emeth, p. 32) to the guilty: thou art right,.e. he who sets the guilty free (for YY and PY have here the forensic sense of the post-bib]. 2°7 and ‘3!), him they curse, etc.; cf. the shorter proverb, xvii. 15, according to which a partial, unjust judge is an abomination to God. Regarding 2) (33?) here and at xi. 26, Schultens, under Jobiii. 8, is right; the word signifies figere, and hence to distinguish and make prominent by distinguishing as well as by branding; cf. de/igere, to curse, properly, to pierce through. Regarding 53%, vid. at xxii. 14, D’DY and DYN? (from DY and DN), which both mean to bind and combine) are plur. of categ.: not merely individuals, not merely families, curse such an unrighteous judge and abhor him, but the whole people in all conditions and ranks of society; for even though such an unjust judge bring himself and his favourites to external honour, yet among no people is conscience so blunted, that he who absolves the crime and ennobles the miscarriage of justice shall escape the vox populi. On the contrary, it goes well (O¥3, like ii. 10, ix. 17, but here with neut. indef. subj. as 20", Gen. xii. 13, and frequently) with those who place the right, and particularly the wrong, fully to view; iD is he who mediates the right, Job ix. 33, and particularly who proves, censures, punishes the wrong, 1x. 7, and in the character of a judge as here, Amos v. 10; Isa. xxix. 21. The genitive connection 210"ND73 is not altogether of the same signification as ΘΠ ἢ, wine of a good sort, Song vii. 10, and ¥7 NW, a woman of a bad kind, vi. 24, for every blessing is of a good kind; the gen. 2) thus, as at Ps. xxi. 4, denotes the contents of the blessing; cf. Eph. i. 3, “ with all spiritual blessings,” in which the manifoldness of the blessing is presupposed. Ver. 26. Then follows ἃ distich with the watchword 0°72): He kisseth the lips Who for the end giveth a right answer.

The LXX., Syr., and Targ. translate: one kisseth the lips who, or: of those who...; but such a meaning is violently forced into the word (in that case the expression would have been DW ‘NY or DW O'NEY), Equally impossible is Theodotion’s χείλεσι καταφιληθήσεται, for PE cannot be the fut. Niph. Nor is it: lips kiss him who... (Rashi); for, to be thus understood, the word ought to bases been seid, YD is naturally to be taken as the subj., and thus it supplies the meaning: he who kisseth the lips giveth an excellent answer, viz. the lips of him whom the answer concerns (Jerome, Venet., Luther). But Hitzig ingeniously, “the words reach from the lips of the speaker to the ears of the hearer, and thus he kisses his ear with his lips.” But since to kiss the ear is not a custom, not even with the Florentines, then a welcome answer, if its impression is to be compared toa kiss, 15 compared to a kiss on the lips. Hitzig himself translates: he commends himself with the lips who....; but ΡΟΣ may mean to join oneself, Gen.

xli. 40, as kissing is equivalent to the joining of the lips; it does not mean intrans. to cringe. Rather the explanation: he who joins the lips together...; for he, viz. before reflecting, closed his lips together (suggested by Meiri); but pws, with Dna, brings the idea of kissing, labra labris jungere, far nearer. This prevails against Schultens’ armatus est (erit) labia, besides pw, certainly, from the primary idea of connecting (laying together) (vid. Ps. xxviii. 9), to equip (arm) oneself therewith; but the meaning arising from thence: with the lips he arms himself... is direct nonsense. Fleischer is essentially right, Labra osculatur (1.6. quasi osculum oblatum reddit) qui congrua respondet. Only the question has nothing to do with a kiss; but if he who asks receives a satisfactory answer, an enlightening counsel, he experiences it as if he received a kiss. The Midrash incorrectly remarks under 073) O34, “words of merited denunciation,” according to which the Syr. translates. Words are meant which are corresponding to the matter and the circumstances, and suitable for the end (cf. viii. 9). Such words are like as if the lips of the inquirer received a kiss from the lips of the answerer. Ver. 27. Warning against the establishing of a household

After that then mayest thou build thine house. The interchange of ΓΞ and 713 shows that by 770 ΠΣ ΡΟ field-labour, 1 Chron. xxvii. 26, is meant. p27, used of arrangement, procuring, here with nxd», signifies the setting in order of the work, viz. the cultivation of the field. In the parallel member, 77Y, carrying also its object, in itself is admissible: make preparations (LUX X., Syr.); but the punctuation AIMY (Targ., Venet.; on the other hand, Jerome and Luther translate as if the words were 77#7 77NY)) is not worthy of being contended against: set it (the work) in the fields in readiness, 7.e.on the one hand set forward the present necessary work, and on the other hand prepare for that which next follows; thus: do completely and circumspectly what thy calling as a husbandman requires of thee,—then mayest thou go to the building and building up of thy house (vid. at ver. 3, xiv. 1), to which not only the building and setting in order of a convenient dwelling, but also the bringing home of a housewife and the whole setting up of a household belongs; prosperity at home is conditioned by this—one fulfils his duty without in the fields actively and faithfully. One begins at the wrong end when he begins with the building of his house, which is much rather the result and goal of an intelligent discharge of duty within the sphere of one’s calling. The perf., with 3 after a date, such as 1M8, DY shy, and the like, when things that will or should be done are spoken of, has the fut. signi-. fication of a perf. consec., Gen. ili. 5; Ex. xvi. 6f., xvii. 4; Ewald, § 3440.

And shouldest thou use deceit with thy lips? The phrase 039-7 does not mean a witness who appears against his neighbour without knowledge of the facts of the case, but one who has no substantial reason for his giving of testimony; D3 means groundless, with reference to the occasion and motive, iii. 30, xxiii. 29, xxvi. 2. Other designations stood for false witnesses (LXX., Syr., Targ.). Rightly Jerome, the Venet., and Luther, without, however, rendering the gen. connection ON“, as it might have been by the adj.

In 280, Chajtig derives M57) from NN, to break in pieces, to crumble; for he remarks it might stand, with the passing over of 6 into 7, for ΠῚ ΠΒΠῚ [and thou wilt whisper]. But the ancients had no acquaintance with the laws of sound, and therefore with naive arbitrariness regarded all as possible; and Bottcher, indeed, maintains that the Hiphil of nnd may be ‘ASN as well as nind7; but the former of these forms with 7 could only be metaplastically possible, and would be MNS (vid. Hitzig under Jer. xi. 20). And what can this Miph. of nnd mean? “To crumble” one’s neighbours (Chajiig) is an unheard of expression; and the meanings, to throw out crumbs, viz. crumbs of words (Bottcher), or to speak with a broken, subdued voice (Hitzig), are extracted from the rare Arab. fatdjit ( fatajit), for which the lexicographers note the meaning of a secret, moaning sound. When we see n'n5n) standing along with 7'N5Y3, then before all we are led to think of nna [to open], xx. 19; Ps. Ixxiii. 36. But we stumble at the interrog. 9, which nowhere else appears connected with 1. Ewald therefore purposes to read MN57} [and will open wide] (LXX. μηδὲ πλατύνου): “that thou usest treachery with thy lips;” but from mina, to make wide open, Gen. ix. 27, “to use treachery ” is, only for the flight of imagination, not too wide a distance. On ΠῚ, et num, one need not stumble; Nim}, 2 Sam. xv. 35, shows that the connection of a question by means of } is not inadmissible; Ewald himself takes notice that in the Arab. the connection of the interrogatives ἷ and ἣν with, and W3 is quite common; ἦ and thus he reaches the explanation: wilt thou befool then by thy lips, z.e. pollute by deceit, by inconsiderate, wanton testimony against others? This is the right explanation, which Ewald hesitates about only from the fact that the interrog. 1 comes in between the 4 consec. and its perf., a thing which is elsewhere unheard of. But this difficulty is removed by the syntactic observation, that the perf. after interrogatives has often the modal colouring of a conj. or optative, 6.5. after the interrog. pronoun, Gen. xxi. 7, guis dizerit, and after the interrogative particle, as here and at 2 Kings xx. 9, iveritne, where it is.to be supplied (wid. at Isa. xxxviii. 8). Thus: e¢ num persuaseris (deceperis) labiis tuts, and shouldest thou practise slander with thy lips, for thou bringest thy neighbour, without need, by thy uncalled for rashness, into disrepute?

in the usual Arab. interrogative: how, thou wouldest? one then permits the inquirer to draw the negative answer: “ No, I will not do it” (Fleischer).

Ver. 29. The following proverb is connected as to its subject with the foregoing: one ought not to do evil to his neighbour without necessity; even evil which has been done to one must not be requited with evil:

Say not, ‘* As he hath done to me, so I do to him: I requite the man according to his conduct.”

1 We use the forms dwa, dba, dthimm, for we suppose the interrogative to the copula; we also say fahad, vid. Mu/assal, p. 941.

On the ground of public justice, the falio is certainly the nearest form of punishment, Lev. xxiv. 19 f.; but even here the Sinaitic law does not remain in the retortion of the injury according to its external form (it is in a certain manner practicable only with regard to injury done to the person and to property), but places in its stead an atonement measured and limited after a higher point of view. On pure moral grounds, the jus talionis (“as thou to me, so I to thee”) has certainly no validity. Here he to whom injustice is done ought to commit his case to God, xx. 22, and to oppose to evil, not evil but good; he ought not to set himself up as a judge, nor to act as one standing on a war-footing with his neighbour (Judg. xv. 11); but to take God as his example, who treats the sinner, if only he seeks it, not in the way of justice, but of grace (Idx. xxxiv. 6f.). The expression 29) reminds of xxiv. 12. Instead of DIN?, there is used here, where the speaker points to a definite person, the phrase vaND, Jerome, the Venet., and Luther translate: to each one, as if the word were vocalized thus, UX? (Ps. Ixii. 13). A Mashal ode of the slothful, in the form of a record of experiences, concludes this second supplement (vid. vol. i. p. 17): Ver. 30 The field of a slothful man I came past, And the vineyard of a man devoid of understanding. 81 And, lo! it was wholly filled up with thorns; Its face was covered with nettles; And its wall of stones was broken down. 32 But I looked and directed my attention to it; I saw it, and took instruction from it: 33 ‘‘ A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest. 34 Then cometh thy poverty apace, And thy want as an armed man.” The line 29 with w»x5 is followed by one with vx. The form of the narrative in which this warning against drowsy slothfulness is clothed, is like Ps. xxxvii. 35f. The distinguishing of different classes of men by ws and Ὁ (cf. xxiv. 20) is common in proverbial poetry. ‘M72Y, at the close of the first parallel member, retains its Pathach unchanged. The

(its stone wall, like Isa. ii. 20, “its idols of silver”) is, like Num. xxii. 24, Isa. v. 5, the fencing in of the vineyard, ἜΣ MY, totus excreverat (in carduos), refers to this as subject, ef. in Ausonius: apex vitibus assurgit; the Heb. construction is as Isa. v. 6, xxxiv. 13; Gesen. ὃ 133, 1, Anm. 2. The sing. fiwAap of DrivD? does not occur; perhaps it means properly the weed which one tears up to cast it aside, for (Arab.) kumdsh is matter dug out of the ground.’ The ancients interpret it by urtice; and bn, plur. Dean (as from δ), R. ἼΠ, to burn, appears, indeed, to be the name of the nettle; the botanical name (Arab.) khullar (beans, pease, at least a leguminous plant) is from its sound not Arab., and thus lies remote.? The Pual 193 sounds like Ps. Ixxx. 11 (cf. Da, Ps. Ixxii. 20); the position of the words is as this passage of the Psalm; the Syr., Targ., Jerome, and the Venet. render the construction actively, as if the word were 23.

In ver. 32, Hitzig proposes to read MX}: and I stopped (stood still); but tnx is trans., not only at Eccles. vii. 9, but also at 11. 15: to hold anything fast; not: to hold oneself still. And for what purpose the change? A contemplating and looking at a thing, with which the turning and standing near is here connected, manifestly includes a standing still; ‘1S, after MINN), is, as commonly after pan (6.9. Job xxxv. 5, cf. Isa. xlii. 18), the expression of a lingering looking at an object after the attention has been directed to it. In modern impressions, ‘2I8 MINN) are incorrectly accentuated; the old editions have rightly minx) with Rebia; for not ‘28 'N), but NWN 18 are connected. In viii. 17, this prominence of the personal pronoun serves for the expression of reciprocity; elsewhere, as e.g. Gen. xxi. 24, 2 Kings vi. 3, and particularly, frequently in Hosea, this circumstantiality does not make the subject prominent, but the action; here the suitable extension denotes that he rightly makes his comments at leisure (Hitzig). a> nw is, as at xxii. 17, the turning of attention and reflection;

1 This is particularly the name of what lies round about on the ground in the Bedouin tents, and which one takes up from thence (from kamesh, cogn. Yop PIP, ramasser, cf. the journal ἽΝ), 1871, p. 2876); in modern Arab., linen and matter of all kinds; vid. Bocthor, under linge and étv/e.

elsewhere ἽΝ mpd, to receive a moral, viii. 10, Jer. vii. 28, is here equivalent to, to abstract, deduce one from a fact, to take to oneself a lesson from it. In vers. 33 and 34 there is a repetition of vi. 9,10. Thus, as ver. 33 expresses, the sluggard speaks to whom the neglected piece of ground belongs, and ver. 34 places before him the result. Instead of pms of the original passage [vi. 9, 10], here Pann, of the coming of poverty like an avenging Nemesis; and instead of 770%, here TDs (the Cod. Jaman. has it without the 3), which might be the plene written pausal form of the sing. (vid. at vi. 3, cf. vi. 11), but is more surely regarded as the plur.: thy deficits, or wants; for to thee at one time this, and at another time that, and finally all things will be wanting. Regarding the variants WN] and Ww) (with & in the original passage, here in the borrowed passage with 3), vid. at x. 4. [Ὁ UND is translated in the LXX. by ὥσπερ ἀγαθὸς δρομεύς (vid. at vi. 11); the Syr. and Targ. make from it a Sarre) N73}, tabellarius, a lettercarrier, coming with the speed of a courier.

The older Solomonic Book of Proverbs, with its introduction, i. 9, and its two supplements, (1) xxii. 17—xxiv. 22, (2) xxiv. 23-34, is now followed by a more modern Solomonic Book of Proverbs, a second extensive series of mndv vin, which the collector has introduced with the superscription: xxv. 1 These also are proverbs of Solomon,

Hezekiah, in his concern for the preservation of the national literature, is the Jewish Pisistratos, and the “ men of Hezekiah”’ are like the collectors of the poems of Homer, who were employed by Pisistratos for that purpose. ΠΡ ΓῺ is the subject, and in Cod. 1294, and in the editions of Bomberg 1515, Hartmann 1595, Nissel, Jablonsky, Michaelis, has Dechi. This title is like that of the second supplement, xxiv. 23. The form of the name Ih, abbreviated from ἽΝ) (37M), is not

Ver. 2. It is characteristic of the purpose of the book that it begins with proverbs of the king:

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; And the glory of the king to search out a matter.

That which is the glory of God and the glory of the king in itself, and that by which they acquire glory, stand here contrasted. The glory of God consists in this, to conceal a matter, 1.6. to place before men mystery upon mystery, in which they become conscious of the limitation and insufficiency of their knowledge, so that they are constrained to acknowledge, Deut. xxix. 28, that “ secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” There are many things that are hidden and are known only to God, and we must be contented with that which He sees it good to make known to us." The honour of kings, on the contrary, who as pilots have to steer the ship of the state (xi. 14), and as supreme judges to administer justice (1 Kings iii. 9), consists in this, to search out a matter, ἵ.6. to place in the

1 Οἵ, von Lasaulx, Philosophie der Geschichte, p. 128 f.: ‘* God and Nature love to conceal the beginning of things.”

light things that are problematical and subjects of controversy, in conformity with their high position, with surpassing intelligence, and, in conformity with their responsibility, with conscientious zeal. The thought that it is the glory of God to veil Himself in secrecy (Isa. lv. 15; cf. 1 Kings viii. 12), and of the king, on the contrary, net to surround himself with an impenetrable nimbus, and to withdraw into inaccessible remoteness,—this thought does not, immediately at least, lie in the proverb, which refers that which is concealed, and its contrary, not to the person, but to a matter. Also that God, by the © concealment of certain things, seeks to excite to activity human research, is not said in this proverb; for 2b does not speak of the honour of wise men, but of kings; the searching out, 20, thus does not refer to that which is veiled by God. But since the honour of God at the same time as the welfare of men, and the honour of the king as well as the welfare of his people, is to be thought of, the proverb states that God and the king promote human welfare in very different ways,—God, by concealing that which sets limits to the knowledge of man, that he may not be uplifted; and the king, by research, which brings out the true state of the matter, and thereby guards the political and social condition against threatening danger, secret injuries, and the ban of offences unatoned for. This proverb, regarding the difference between that which constitutes the honour of God and of the king, is followed by one which refers to that in which the honour of both is alike. Ver. 3 The heavens in height, and the earth in depth, And the heart of kings are unsearchable.

This is a proverb in the priamel-form, vid. p.13. The praeambulum consists of three subjects to which the predicate ἽΡΠ [SX [=no searching out] is common. “As it is impossible to search through the heavens and through the earth, so it is also impossible to search the hearts of common men (like the earth), and the hearts of kings (like the heavens)” (Fleischer). The meaning, however, is simple. Three unsearchable things are placed together: the heavens, with reference to their height, stretching into the impenetrable distance; the earth, in respect to its depth, reaching down into the immeasurable abyss; and the heart of kings—it is this third thing which the proverb particularly aims at—which in themselves, and especially with that which goes on in their depths, are impenetrable and unsearchable. The proverb is a warning against the delusion of being flattered by the favour of the king, which may, before one thinks of it, be withdrawn or changed even into the contrary; and a counsel to one to take heed to his words and acts, and to see to it that he is influenced by higher motives than by the fallacious calculation of the impression on the view and disposition of the king. The 5 in both cases is the expression of the reference, as e.g. at 2 Chron. ix. 22. 728), not = ON), but like Isa. xxvi. 19, Ixv. 17, for 778), which generally occurs only in the st. constr.

Ver. 4 Take away the dross from silver, So there is ready a vessel for the goldsmith; 5 Take away the wicked from the king, And his throne is established by righteousness. The form 335 (cf. the inf. Poal i3h, Isa. lix. 13) is regarded by Schultens as showing a ground-form 137; but there is also found e.g. i¥Y, whose ground-form is ὋΝ; the verb 737, R. an (whence Arab. hajr, discedere), cf. 13% (whence 3, semovit, 2 Sam. xx. 18 = Syr. dwagy, cf. Arab. dwjay, to withhold, to abstain from), signifies to separate, withdraw; here, of the separation of the D°3'D, the refuse, z.e. the dross (vid. regarding the plena scriptio, Baer’s krit. Ausg. des Jesaia, under i. 22); the goldsmith is designated by the word ἢ", from ἢ, to turn, change, as he who changes the as yet drossy metal by means of smelting, or by purification in water, into that which is pure. In 5a 37 is, as at Isa. xxvii. 8, transferred to a process of moral purification; what kind of persons are to be removed from the neighbourhood of the king is shown by Isa. i. 22, 23. Here also (as at Isa. 1.6.) the emblem or figure of ver. 4 is followed in ver. 5 by its moral antitype aimed at. The punctuation of both verses is wonderfully fine and excellent. In ver. 4, xx dross is separated from the silver (inf. absol., as xii. 7, xv. 22), and so a vessel (utensil) proceeds from the goldsmith, for he manufactures pure silver; the 5 is here similarly used as the designation of the subject in the passive, xiii. 13, xiv. 20. In ver. 5, on the contrary, }i3*) (}2") is not the punctuation used, but the word is pointed indicatively 3); this second part of the proverb expresses a moral demand (inf. absol. in the sense of the imperative, Gesen. ὃ 131, 40 like xvii. 12, or an optative or concessive conjunction): let the godless be removed, Je "259, i.e. not from the neighbourhood of the king, for which the words are =p EDD; also not those standing before the king, i.e. in his closest neighbourhood (Ewald, Bertheau); but since, in the absolute, 737, not an act of another in the interest of the king, but of the king himself, is thought of: let the godless be removed from before the king, i.e. because he administers justice (Hitzig), or more generally: because after that Psalm (ci.), which is the “ mirror of princes,” he does not suffer him to come into his presence. Accordingly, the punctuation is P7¥3, not Piva (xvi. 12); because such righteousness is meant as separates the YW from it and itself from him, as Isa. xvi, 5 (vid. Hitzig), where the punctuation of 7673 denotes that favour towards Moab seeking protection. There now follows a second proverb with 750, as the one just explained was a second with psp: a warning against arrogance before kings and nobles.

Ver. 6 Display not thyself before the king, And approach not to the place of the great. 7 For better that one say to thee, ‘‘ Come up hither,” Than that they humble thee before a prince, Whom thine eyes had seen.

The 0°93 are those, like xviii. 16, who by virtue of their descent and their office occupy a lofty place of honour in the court and in the state. 201) (vid. under viii. 16) is the noble in disposition and the nobleman by birth, a general designation which comprehends the king and the princes. The Hithpa. ὝΠΠΠΠ is like the reflex forms xi. 9, xii. 7, for it signifies to conduct oneself as 77 or ὙΠ) (vid. xx. 29), to play the part of one highly distinguished. 2 has, 60, its nearest signification: it denotes, not like 28), standing still, but approaching to, 6.0. Jer. vii. 9. The reason given in ver. 7 harmonizes with the rule of wisdom, Luke xiv. 10 f.: better is the saying to thee, z.e. that one say to thee (Ewald, ὃ 3040), 73n ney (so the Olewejored is to be placed), προσανάβηθι ἀνώτερον (thus in Luke), than that one humble thee 3°72 %25?, not: because of a prince (Hitzig), for 255 nowhere means either pro (xvii. 18) or propter, but before a prince, so that thou must yield to him (cf. xiv. 19), before him whom thine eyes had seen, so that thou art not excused if thou takest up the place appropriate to him. Most interpreters are at a loss to explain this relative. Luther: “which thine eyes must see,” and Schultens: ut wideant oculi tut. Michaelis, syntactically admissible: quem videre gestiverunt oculi tut, viz. to come near to him, according to Bertheau, with the request that he receives some high office. Otherwise Fleischer: before the king by whom thou and thine are seen, so much the more felt is the humiliation when it comes upon one after he has pressed so far forward that he can be perceived by the king. But.23 is not specially the king, but any distinguished personage whose place he who has pressed forward has taken up, and from which he must now withdraw when the right possessor of it comes and lays claim to his place. Wt is never used in poetry without emphasis. Elsewhere it is equivalent to ὅντινα, quippe quem, here equivalent to ὅνπερ, quem quidem. Thine eyes have seen him in the company, and thou canst say to thyself, this place belongs to him, according to his rank, and not to thee,—the humiliation which thou endurest is thus well deserved, because, with eyes to see, thou wert so blind. The LXX., Syr., Symmachus (who reads 8a, ah, εἰς πλῆθος), and Jerome, refer the words “ whom thine eyes had seen” to the proverb following; but wx does not appropriately belong to the beginning of a proverb, and on the supposition that the word 3 is generally adopted, except by Symmachus, they are also heterogeneous to the following proverb:

Ver. 8 Go not forth hastily to strife, That it may not be said, ‘‘ What wilt thou do in the end thereof, When now thy neighbour bringeth disgrace upon thee? ” 9 Art thou striving with thy neighbour? strive with him, But disclose not the secret of another; 10 That he who heareth it may not despise thee, And thine evil name depart no more.

Whether 2% in and is infin., as at Judg. xxi. 22, or subst., as at

2 Chron. xix. 8, is not decided: ad litigandum and ad litem harmonize. As little may it be said whether in xynnoy [go not forth], a going out to the gate (court of justice), or to the place where he is to be met who is to be called to account, is to be thought of; in no respect is the sense metaphorical: let not thyself transgress the bounds of moderation, ne te laisse pas emporter; 379 XS" is correlate to ap Nia, Judg. xxi. 22. The use of ΪΞ in 8b is unprecedented. Euchel and Lowenstein regard it as an imper.: reflect upon it (test it); but 728 does not signify this, imper. Kal }2, and certainly not {2 (12). The conj. 1Β 15 the connecting form of an original subst. (= pan7), which signifies a turning away. It is mostly connected with the future, according to which Nolde, Oetinger, Ewald, and Bertheau explain np indefinite, something, viz. unbecoming. In itself, it may, perhaps, be possible that 79 jb was used in the sense of ne guid (Venet. μήποτέ te); but “to do something,” for “to commit something bad,” is improbable; also in that case we would expect the words to be thus: ΠῸ nyynjp. Thus 79 will be an interrogative, as at 1 Sam. xx. 10 (vid. Keil), and the expression is brachylogical: that thou comest not into the situation not to know what thou oughtest to do (Rashi: ytn x55 wan yp τυ mo), or much rather anakoluth.; for instead of saying ἜΡΡΕΙ yan NOvIB, the poet, shunning this unusual xd 15, adopts at once the interrogative form: that it may not be said at the end thereof (viz. of the strife): what wilt thou do? (Umbreit, Stier, Elster, Hitzig, and Zockler.) This extreme perplexity would occur if thy neighbour (with whom thou disputest so eagerly and unjustly) put thee to shame, so that thou standest confounded (p?2, properly to hurt, French blesser). If now the summons θα follows this warning against going out for the purpose of strife: fight out thy conflict with thy neighbour, then 12, set forth with emphasis, denotes not such a strife as one is surprised into, but that into which one is drawn, and the twam in causam tuam is accented in so far as 9b localizes the strife to the personal relation of the two, and warns against the drawing in of an MN, zie. in this case, of a third person: and expose not the secret of another DIN-ON (after Michlol 130a, and Ben-Bileam, who places the word under the Β΄ 2 nna, is vocalized with Pathach on 3, as is Cod. 1294, and elsewhere in correct texts). One ought not to bring forward in a dispute, as material of proof and means of acquittal, secrets entrusted to him by another, or secrets which one knows regarding the position and conduct of another; for such faithlessness and gossiping affix a stigma on him who avails himself of them, in the public estimation, ver. 10; that he who hears it may not blame thee (755 = Aram. IBN, vid. under xiv. 34), and the evil report concerning thee continue without recall. Fleischer: ne ijfamia tua non recedat i. 6. nunquam desinat per ora hominum propagart, with the remark, “in 737, which properly means a stealthy creeping on of the rumour, and in 2 lies a (Arab.) tarshyh,” ὁ.6. the two ideas stand in an interchangeable relation with a play upon the words: the evil rumour, once put in circulation, will not again retrace its steps; but, on the contrary, as Virgil says:

Mobilitate viget viresque acquirit eundo.

In fact, every other can sooner rehabilitate himself in the public estimation than he who is regarded as a prattler, who can keep no secret, or as one so devoid of character that he makes public what he ought to keep silent, if he can make any use of it in his own interest. In regard to such an one, the words are continually applicable, hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto, xx. 19. The LXX. has, instead of Jna7 108, read ymax, and translated it with the addition of a long appendix: “ They quarrel, and hostilities will not cease, but will be to thee like death. Kindness and friendship deliver, let these preserve thee, that thou mayest not become one meriting reproaches (Jerome: ne exprobrabilis fias), but guard thy ways, εὐσυναλλάκτως.

Ver. 11 Golden apples in silver salvers. A word spoken according to its circumstances.

The Syr. and Jerome vocalize 121 725, and the Targ, 123 729; both are admissible, but the figure and that which is represented are not placed in so appropriate a relation as by 123 "Δ; the wonderfully penetrating expression of the text, which is rendered by the traditional nikkud, agrees here with the often occurring 135 (= 37), also its passive 131. The defective writing is like, e.g., 03, Ps. cxii. 7, and gives no authority to prefer 123 =137 (Bottcher). That "224, corresponding to the plur. ‘32M, is not used, arises from this, that 127 is here manifestly not a word without connection, but a sentence of motive, contents, and aim united. For ᾿Ξ ΤΟΣ, the meaning of inya presents itself from xv. 23, according to which, among the old interpreters, Symmachus, Jerome, and Luther render “ at its time.” Abulwalid compared the Arab. diffan (dibban, also "affan, whence ’aly ’iffantht, justo tempore), which, as Orelli has shown in his Synon. der Zeitbegrife, p. 21f., comes from the: roots af ab, to drive (from within) going out, time as consisting of individual moments, the one of which drives on the other, and thus denotes time as a course of succession. One may not hesitate as to the prep. by for DAN would, like nimy, denote the circumstances, the relations of the time, and °Y would, as e.g. in ον and MIDI", have the meaning of κατά. But the form Y288, which like "25N, Lev. xvi. 12, sounds dualistic, appears to oppose this. Hitzig supposes that D'58 may designate the time as a circle, with reference to the two arches projecting in opposite directions, but uniting themselves together; but the circle which time describes runs out from one point, and, moreover, the Arab. names for time d/af, difaf, and the like, which interchange with dzffan, show that this does not proceed from the idea of circular motion. Ewald and others take for 158 the meaning of wheels (the Venet., after Kimchi, ἐπὶ τῶν τροχῶν αὐτῆς), whereby the form is to be interpreted as dual of jk8 = jDi8, “a word driven on its wheels,”—so Ewald explains: asthe potter quickly and neatly forms a vessel on his wheels, thus a fit and quickly framed word. But 139 signifies to drive cattle and to speak = to cause words to follow one another (cf. Arab. sydk, pressing on = flow of words), but not to drive = to fashion in that artisan sense. Otherwise Bottcher, “a word fitly spoken, a pair of wheels perfect in their motion,” to which he compares the common people “ in their jesting,” and adduces all kinds of heterogeneous things partly already rejected by Orelli (e.g. the Homeric ἐπιτροχάδην, which is certainly no commendation). But “jesting” is not appropriate here; for what man conceives of human speech as a carriage, one only sometimes compares that of a babbler to a sledge, or says of him that he shoves the cart into the mud.? Is it then thus decided that 25s isa dual? It may be also like 1x, the plur. especially in the adverbial expression before us, which readily carried the abbreviation with it (vid. Gesen. Lehrgebr. ὃ 184, Anm.17). On this supposition, Orelli interprets j8 from 5X, to turn, in the sense of turning about, circumstances, and reminds of this, that in the post.-bib]. Heb. this word is used as indefinitely as τρόπος, e.g. md ᾿ΕΝ 3, guodammodo (vid. Reland’s Analecta Rabbinica, 1723, p- 126). This late Talm. usage of the word can, indeed, signify nothing as to the bibl. word; but that Ox, abbreviated DEX, can mean circumstances, is warranted by the synon. nisix. Aquila and Theodotion appear to have thus understood it, for their ἐπὶ ἁρμόζουσιν αὐτῷ, which they substitute for the colourless οὕτως of the LX X., signifies: under the circumstances, in accordance therewith. So Orelli thus rightly defines: “ox denote the dhwdl, circumstances and conditions, as they form themselves in each turning of time, and those which are ascribed to 125 by the suffix are those to which it is proper, and to which it fits in. Consequently a word is commended which is spoken whenever the precise time arrives to which it is adapted, a word which is thus spoken at its time as well as at its place (van Dyk, fay mahllah), and the grace of which is thereby heightened.” Aben Hzra’s explanation, np ὃν own, in the approved way, follows the opinion of Abulwalid and Parchon, that 25x is equivalent to 128 (cf. aly wajhihi, sua ratione), which is only so far true, that both words are derived from R. }5, to turn. In the figure, it is questionable whether by 3 ‘RBA, apples of gold, or gold-coloured apples, are meant (Luther: as pomegranates and citrons); thus oranges are meant, as at Zech. iv. 12. 37% denotes golden oil. Since DD, besides, signifies a metallic substance, one appears to be under the necessity of thinking of apples of gold; cf. the brazen pomegranates. But (1) apples of gold of natural size and massiveness are obviously too great to make it probable that such artistic productions are meant; (2) the material of the emblem is usually not of less value than that of which it is the emblem (Fleischer); (3) the Scriptures are fond of comparing words with flowers and fruits, x. 31, xii. 14, xiii. 2, xviii. 20, and to the essence of the word which is rooted in the spirit, and buds and grows up to maturity through the mouth and the lips, the comparison with natural fruits corresponds better in any case than with artificial. Thus, then, we interpret “ golden apples” as the poetic name for oranges, aurea mala, the Indian name of which with reference to or (gold) was changed into the French name orange, as our pomeranze is. equivalent to pomum aurantium. ΤΣ is the plur. of Navn, already explained, xviii. 11; the word is connected neither with 72%, to twist, wreathe (Ewald, with most Jewish interpreters*), nor sh rite ΠΩ), to pierce, infigere (Redslob, vid. under Ps. Ixxiii. 7); it signifies medal or ornament, from 73%, to behold (cf. 13%, θέα = θέαμα, Isa. ii. 6), here a vessel which is a delight to the eyes. In general the Venet. rightly, ἐ ἐν μορφώ- μασιν ἀργύρου; Symmachus and Theodotion, more in accordance with the fundamental idea, ἐν ay Sey ἀργύρου; the Syr. and Targ. specially: in vessels of embossed work (1.22, from “3, to draw, to extend); yet more specially the LXX., ἐν ὁρμίσκῳ capdiov, on a chain of cornelian stone, for which, perhaps, ἐν φορμίσκῳ (Jager) ἀργυρίου, in a little silver basket, is the original phrase. Aquila, after Dereschith rabba c. 93, translates by μῆλα χρύσου ἐν δίσκοις apyvpiov. Jerome: in lectis argenteis, appears to have fallen into the error of taking swn for 12wn, lectus. Hitzig here emends a self-made ἅπαξ λεγ. Luther’s “ golden apples in silver baskets” is to be preferred.’ A piece of sculpture which represents fruit by golden little disks or points within groups of leaves is not meant,—for the proverb does not speak of such pretty little apples,—but golden oranges are meant. A word in accordance with the circumstances which

1 On this proceeds also the beautiful interpretation by Maimuni in the preface to More Nebuchim: Maskiyydth sont des ciselures réticulaires, etc., according to Munk’s translation from the Arab. text, vid. Kohut’s Pers. Pentateuch- Uebers. (1871), p. 356. Accordingly Jewish interpreters (e.g. Elia Wilna) understand under 35x the four kinds of writing: pw», "2, wnt, and Ὁ, which are comprehended under the memorial word p75.

occasion it, is like golden oranges which are handed round in silver salvers or on silver waiters. Such a word is, as adopting another figure we might say, like a well-executed picture, and the situation into which it appropriately fits is like its elegant frame. The comparison with fruit is, however, more significant; it designates the right word as a delightful gift, in a way which heightens its impression and its influences.

Ver. 12. Another proverb continues the commendation of the effective word; for it represents, in emblem, the interchangeable relation of speaker and hearer:

A wise preacher to an ear that heareth; 1.6.) as the former two ornaments form a beautiful ensemble, so the latter two, the wise preacher of morality and an attentive ear, form a harmonious whole: 5Y, down upon, is explained by Deut. xxxii. 2. 09, at xi. 12, standing along with ΝΞ, meant a ring for the nose; but here, as elsewhere, it means an earring (LXX., Jerome, Venet.), translated by the Syr. and Targ. by 8Y7P, because it serves as a talisman. A ring for the nose! cannot also be here thought of, because this ornament is an emblem of the attentive ear: willingly accepted chastisement or instruction is an ear-ornament to him who hears (Stier). But the gift of the wise preacher, which consists in rightly dividing the word of truth, 2 Tim. ii. 15, is as an ornament for the neck or the breast on (= Arab. khaly, fem. mon =hilyt), of fine gold (ON3, jewel, then particularly precious gold, from on3, Arab. katam, recondere).? The Venet. well: κόσμος ἀπυρο-

1 Vid. Geiger’s Zeitschrift, 1872, pp. 45-48, where it is endeavoured to be shown that pty, as an earring, is rejected from the later biblical literature, because it had become “δὴ object used in the worship of idols,” and that the word was used only of a ring for the nose as a permissible ornament, while δὴν was used for the earring. But that does not apply to the Solomonic era; for that, in the passage under review, D}) signifies a ring for the nose, is only a supposition of Geiger’s, because it accords with his construction of history.

2 Hitzig compares Arab. kumét; but this means bayard, as Lagarde remarks, the Greek κόραιθος; and if by ond gold foxes (gold money) are to be thought of, yet they have nothing whatever to do with bayards (red-brown horses); cf. Boehmer, de colorum nominibus equinorum, in his Roman. Stud. Heft 2, 1872, p. 285.

χρύσου (fine gold); on the contrary (perhaps in want of another name for gold), ὉΠ is translated, by the LX X. and Syr., by sardine; by the Targ., by emerald; and by Jerome, by margaritum.’ It looks well when two stand together, the one of whom has golden earrings, and the other wears a yet more precious golden necklace—such a beautiful mutual relationship is formed by a wise speaker and a hearer who listens to his admonitions. Ver. 13. The following comparative tristich refers to faithful service rendered by words: Like the coolness of snow on a harvest day Is a faithful messenger to them that send him: He refresheth the soul of his master. The coolness (ΠΝ from }23, }2¥, to be cool) of snow is not that of a fall of snow, which in the time of harvest would be a calamity, but of drink cooled with snow, which was brought from Lebanon or elsewhere, from the clefts of the rocks; the peasants of Damascus store up the winter’s snow in a cleft of the mountains, and convey it in the warm months to Damascus and the coast towns. Such a refreshment is a faithful messenger (vid. regarding VS, xiil. 17, here following V¥? as a kind of echo) to them that send him (vid. regarding this plur. at x. 26, cf. xxii. 21); he refreshes, namely (1 explicativum, as e.g. Ezek. xvii. 19, etenim filius, like the 1 et quidem, Mal. i. 11, different from the 1 of conditional clause xxiii. 3), the soul of his master; for the answer which he brings to his master refreshes him, as does a drink of snow-cooled water on a hot harvest day. Ver. 14. This proverb relates to the word which promises much, but remains unaccomplished: Clouds and wind, and yet no rain— A man who boasteth with a false gift. Incorrectly the LXX. and Targ. refer the predicate contained in the concluding word of the first line to all the three subjects; and equally incorrectly Hitzig, with Heidenheim, interprets "PY nnd, of a gift that has been received of which one boasts, 1 Another Greek translates πίνωσις χρυσῆ. This πίνωσις is a philological mystery, the solution of which has been attempted by Bochart, Letronne, and Field.

although it is in reality of no value, because by a lying promise a gift is not at all obtained. But as para ond, xxiii. 3, is bread which, as it were, deceives him who eats it, so spy nnp is a gift which amounts to a lie, z.e. a deceitful pretence. Rightly Jerome: vir gloriosus et promissa non complens. In the Arab. salid, which Fleischer compares, the figure 14a and its counterpart 14) are amalgamated, for this word signifies both a boaster and a cloud, which is, as it were, boastful, which thunders much, but rains only sparsely or not at all. Similar is the Arab. khullab, clouds which send forth lightning, and which thunder, but yet give no rain; we say to one, magno promissor hiatu: thou art (Arab.) kabarakn khullabin, i.e. as Lane translates it: “‘Thou art only like lightning with which is no rain.” Schultens refers to this proverbial Arabic, fulmen nubis infecunde. Liberality is called (Arab.) nadnay, as a watering, cf. xi. 25. The proverb belongs to this circle of figures. It is a saying of the German peasants, “ Wenn es sich wolket, so will es regnen”’ [when it is cloudy, then there will be rain]; but according to another saying, “nicht alle Wolken regnen” [it is not every cloud that yields rain]. “Chere are clouds and wind without rain.”

Three proverbs follow, which have this in common, that they exhort to moderation:

Ver. 15 By forbearance is a judge won over, And a gentle tongue breaketh the bone.

PSP (vid. vi. 7) does not denote any kind of distinguished person, but a judge or a person occupying a high official position. And M5 does not here mean, to talk over or delude; but, like Jer. xx. 7, to persuade, to win over, to make favourable to one; for D'AS δ (vid. xiv. 29) is dispassionate calmness, not breaking out into wrath, which finally makes it manifest that he who has become the object of accusation, suspicion, or of disgrace, is one who nevertheless has right on his side; for indecent, boisterous passion injures even a just cause; while, on the contrary, a quiet, composed, thoughtful behaviour, which is not embarrassed by injustice, either experienced or threatened, in the end secures a decision in our favour. Patience overcomes” is an old saying. The soft, gentle tongue (cf. ΠῚ, xv. 1) is the opposite of a passionate, sharp, coarse one, which only the more increases the resistance which it seeks to overcome. ‘ Patience,” says a German proverb, “ breaks iron;” another says, “ Patience is stronger than a diamond.” So here: a gentle tongue breaketh the bone (073 = OYY, as at xvil. 22), it softens and breaks to pieces that which is hardest. Sudden anger makes the evil still worse; long-suffering, on the contrary, operates convincingly; cutting, immoderate language, embitters and drives away; gentle words, on the contrary, persuade, if not immediately, yet by this, that they remain as it were unchangeable. Ver. 16. Another way of showing self-control: Hast thou found honey? eat thy enough, Lest thou be surfeited with it, and vomit it up.

Honey is pleasant, salutary, and thus to be eaten sparingly, xxiv. 13, but ne guid nimis. Too much is unwholesome, 27a: αὐτοῦ καὶ μέλιτος TO πλέον ἐστὶ χολή, t.e. even honey enjoyed immoderately is as bitter as gall; or, as Freidank says: des honges stieze erdriuzet s6 mans ze viel geniuzet [the sweetness of honey offends when one partakes too much of it]. Eat if thou hast found any in the forest or the mountains, 33, thy enough (LXX. τὸ ἱκανόν; the Venet. τὸ ἀρκοῦν cot), 1.6. as much as appeases thine appetite, that thou mayest not become surfeited and vomit it out (πε ΡΠ at 2 Sam. xiv. 10; wid. Michlol 116a, and Parchon under nip). Fleischer, Ewald, Hitzig, and others, place vers. 16 and 17 together, so as to form an emblematic tetrastich; but he who is surfeited is certainly, in ver. 16, he who willingly enjoys, and in 17, he to whom it is given to enjoy without his will; and is not, then, ver. 16 a sentence complete in itself in meaning? That it is not to be understood in a purely dietetic sense (although thus interpreted it is a rule not to be despised), is self-evident. As one can suffer injury from the noblest of food if he overload his stomach therewith, so in the sphere of science, instruction, edification, there is an injurious overs loading of the mind; we ought to measure what we receive by our spiritual want, the right distribution of enjoyment and labour, and the degree of our ability to change it in succum et sanguinem,—else it at last awakens in us dislike, and becomes an evil to us,

Ver. 17. This proverb is of a kindred character to the foregoing. “If thy comrade eats honey,” says an Arabic proverb quoted by Hitzig, “do not lick it all up.” But the emblem of honey is not continued in this verse:

Make rare thy foot in thy neighbour’s house, Lest he be satiated with thee, and hate thee.

To make one’s foot rare or dear from a neighbour’s house is equivalent to: to enter it seldom, and not too frequently; ΡΠ includes in itself the idea of keeping at a distance (Targ. Tor 722; Symmachus, ὑπόστειίλον; and another: φίμωσον πόδα gov), and Ὁ has the sense of the Arab. ’an, and is not the comparative, as at Isa. xiii. 12: regard thy visit dearer than the house of a neighbour (Heidenheim). The proverb also is significant as to the relation of friend to friend, whose reciprocal love may be turned into hatred by too much intercourse and too great fondness. But 7 is including a friend, any one with whom we stand in any kind of intercourse. ‘ Let him who seeks to be of esteem,” says a German proverb, ‘ come seldom;” and that may be said with reference to him whom his heart draws to another, and also to him who would be of use to another by drawing him out of the false way and guiding on the right path,—a showing of esteem, a confirming of love by visiting, should not degenerate into forwardness which appears as burdensome servility, as indiscreet self-enjoyment; nor into a restless impetuosity, which seeks at once to gain by force that which one should allow gradually to ripen.

Vers. 18-22. This group of proverbs has the word ΝῊ in each of them, connecting them together. The first of the group represents a false tongue:

A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour. An emblematic, or, as we might also say, an iconological proverb; for 18a is a quodlibet of instruments of murder, and 180 is the subscription under it: that which these weapons of murder accomplish, is done to his neighbour by a man who bears false witness against him—he ruins his estate, takes away his honour, but yet more: he murders him, at one time more grossly, at another time with more refinement; at one time slowly, at another time more quickly. "22, from 78, is equivalent to 7B, and Y£ from 72); the Syr. and Targ. have instead NTH (NYT) from YIS = YB; the word &Y5, on which Hitzig builds a conjecture, is an error of transcription (vid. Lagarde and Levy). The expression, 180, is from the decalogue, Ex. xx. 16; Deut. v. 17. It is for the most part translated the same here as there: he who speaks against his neighbour as a false witness. But rightly the LXX., Jerome, the Venet., and Luther: false testimony. As 98 signifies both that which is mighty = power, and Him who is mighty = God, so 7Y signifies both him who bears testimony and the testimony that is borne, properly that which repeats itself and thereby strengthens itself; accordingly we say 7) ΠΡ, to give testimony in reply,—viz. to the judge who asks,—or generally to offer testimony (even unasked); as well as sy? my, Deut. xxxi. 21, i.e. as evidence (Jerome, pro testimonio). The prep. 2 with this my has always the meaning of contra, also at 1 Sam. xii. 3; Gen. xxx. 33 is, however, open to question. Ver. 19 A worthless tooth and an unsteady foot— Trust in a faithless man in the day of need.

The form ΠΡ (with Mercha on the antepenult), Isa. xxix. 19, takes the place of an inf. absol.; 75 here (about the tone syllable of which Decht does not decide, thus without doubt Milra) is certainly not a subst.: tooth of breaking (Gesen.); for how strange such a designation of a worthless tooth! {¥ is indeed mas. in 1 Sam. xiv. 5, but it can also be used as fem., as 511, which is for the most part fem., also occurs as mas., Bottch. ὃ 650. Bottcher, in the new Aehrenlese, and in the Lehrbuch, takes ΠΡ as fem. of an adj. 95, after the form ὁπ; but 5h is not an adj., and does not form a fem., although it means not merely profanity, but that which is profane; this is true also of the Aram. 5:n; for NAP, Esth. ii. 9, Targ., is a female name mistaken by Buxtorf. Are we then to read 7, with Hitzig, after the LX -X.?—an unimportant change. We interpret the traditional ΠΡ, with Fleischer, as derived from nyyin, from Yyin, breaking to pieces (crumbling), in an intransitive sense. The form ΠΝ is also difficult. Bottcher regards it as also, e.g. Aben Ezra after the example of Gecatilia as part. Kal. =n yin, “ only on account of the pausal tone and the combination of the two letters yo with ὦ instead of 6.” But this vocal change, with its reasons, is merely imaginary. N1yy is the part. Pual, with the preformative 2 struck out, Ewald 169d. The objection that the part. Pual should be 10», after the form 7Y3, does not prove anything to the contrary; for niyid cannot be the fem. so as not to coincide with the fem. of the part. Kal., cf. besides to the long ὦ the form without the Dagesh DY, Eccles. ix. 12=DYp') (Arnheim, Gramm. p. 139). ΤΠ on is a leg that has become tottering, trembling. He who in a time of need makes a faithless man his ground of confidence, is like one who seeks to bite with a broken tooth, and which he finally crushes, and one who supports himself on a shaking leg, and thus stumbles and falls. The gen. connection 723 ND3 signifies either the ground of confidence consisting in a faithless man, or the confidence placed in one who is faithless. But, after the Masora, we are to read here, as at Ps. Ixv. 6, 129, which Michlol 184a also confirms, and as it is also found in the Venice 1525, Basel 1619, and in Norzi. This ΓΞ is constr. according to Kimchi, notwithstanding the Kametz; as also >pvin, Ezra viii. 30 (after Abulwalid, Kimchi, and Norzi). In this passage before us, NO3D 33 may signify a deceitful ground of confidence (cf. Hab. ii. 5), but the two other passages present a genit. connection of the words. We must thus suppose that the — of ΠΟ and opvin, in these three passages, is regarded as fixed, like the ὦ of the form (Arab.) mif’dl.

The above proverb, which connects itself with ver. 18, not only by the sound yn, but also by jw, which is assonant with tw, is followed by another with the catchword y:

Ver. 20 He that layeth aside his coat on a day of frost, vinegar on nitre And he Asp welcomes with songs a dejected heart. Is not this intelligible, sensible, ingenious? All these three things are wrong. ‘The first is as wrong as the second, and the third, which the proverb has in view, is morally wrong, for one ought to weep with those that weep, Rom. xii. 1; he, on the contrary, who laughs among those who weep, is, on the most favourable judgment, a fool. That which is wrong in 20a, according to Béttcher in the Aehrenlese, 1849, consists in this, that one in severe cold puts on a fine garment. As if there were not garments which are at the same time beautiful, and keep warm! In the new Aehrenlese he prefers the reading mwa: if one changes his coat. But that surely he might well enough do, tf the one were warmer than tlie other! Is it then impossible that ΠῚ, in the connection, means transire faciens =removens? The Kal MY, transitt, occurs at Job xxviii. 8. So also, in the poetic style, 7721 might be used in the sense of the Aram. "YX. Rightly Aquila, Symmachus, περιαιρῶν; the Venet. better, ἀφαιρούμενος (Mid.). 33 is an overcoat or mantle, so called from covering, as wand (R. 25, to fasten, fix), the garment lying next the body, vid. at Ps. xxii. 19. Thus, as it is foolish to lay off upper clothing on a frosty day, so it is foolish also to pour vinegar on nitre; carbonic acid nitre, whether it be mineral (which may be here thought of) or vegetable, is dissolved in water, and serves diverse purposes (vid. under Isa. i. 25); but if one pours vinegar on it, it is destroyed. yoesat is, at xxvi. 23 and elsewhere, a heart morally bad, here a heart badly disposed, one inclined to that which is evil; for Ὕ WW is the contrast of ΠΡ j2iP, and always the consequence of a disposition joyfully excited; the inconsistency lies in this, that one thinks to cheer a sorrowful heart by merry singing, if the singing has an object, and is not much more the reckless expression of an animated pleasure in view of the sad condition of another, ὧν TY signifies, as at Job xxxill. 27, to sing to any one, to address him in singing; cf. by 124, Jer. vi. 10, and particularly ab-5y, Hos. ii. 16; Isa. xl. 2. The 3 of O W2 is neither the partitive, ix. 5, nor the transitive, xx. 30, but the instrumental; for, as e.g. at Ex. vii. 20, the obj. of the action is thought of as its means (Gesen. ὃ 138, Anm. 3*); one sings “with songs,” for definite songs underlie his singing. The LXX., which the Syr., Targ., and Jerome more or less follow, has formed from this proverb one quite different: “As vinegar is hurtful to a wound, so an injury to the body makes the heart sorrowful; as the moth in clothes, and the worm in wood, so the sorrow of a man injures his heart.” The wisdom of this pair of proverbs is not worth much, and after all inquiry little or nothing comes of it. The Targ. at least preserves the