Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Thus the traditional text is to be translated; for on the supposition that 0°22 must be used for 0%933, yet it might not be translated: as in waters face corresponds to face (Jerome: guomodo in aquis resplendent vultus respicientium), because 2 (instar) is always only a prep. and never conj. subordinating to itself a whole sentence (vid. under Ps. xxxviii. 14). But whether Dvd, “like water,” may be an abridgment of a sentence: “ like as it is with water,” is a question, and the translation of the LXX. (Syr., Targ., Arab.), ὥσπερ οὐχ ὅμοια πρόσωπα προσώ- ποίς, K.T.A.. appears, according to Bottcher’s ingenious conjecture, to have supposed p93 ἼΨΝ 3, from which the LX X. derived DD PND, sicut non pares. The thought is beautiful: as in the water-mirror each one beholds his own face (Luther: der Scheme = the shadow), so out of the heart of another each sees his own heart, 1.6. he finds in another the dispositions and feelings of his own heart (Fleischer)—the face finds in water its reflection, and the heart of a man finds in man its echo; men are ὁμοιοπαθεῖς, and it is a fortunate thing that their heart is capable of the same sympathetic feelings, so that one can pour into the heart of another that which fills and moves his own heart, and can there find agreement with it, and are-echo. The expression with δ is extensive: one corresponds to another, one belongs to another, is adapted to the other, turns to the other, so that the thought may be rendered in manifold ways; the divinely-ordained mutual relationship is always the groundthought. This is wholly obliterated by Hitzig’s conjecture Did, “what arole on the face is to the face, that is man’s heart to man,” 1.6. the heart is the dark spot in man, his partie honteuse. But the Scripture nowhere speaks of the human heart after this manner, at least the Book of Proverbs, in which 20 frequently means directly the understanding. Far more intelligible and consistent is the conjecture of Mendel Stern, to which Abrahamsohn drew my attention: Dp? D°2B7 ODD, like water (viz. flowing water), which directs its course always forward, thus (is turned) the heart of man to man. This conjecture removes the syntactic harshness of the first member without changing the letters, and illustrates by a beautiful and excellent figure the natural impulse moving man to man. It appears, however, to us, in view of the LX X., more probable that 0%3 is abbreviated from the original ova was (cf. xxIv. 29). |

The following proverb has, in common with the preceding, the catchword nin, and the emphatic repetition of the same _ expression: Ver. 20 The under-world and hell are not satisfied,

A Keri 3112") is here erroneously noted by Lowenstein, Stuart, and others. The Ket to 1728) is here 1738), which secures the right utterance of the ending, and is altogether wanting’ in many MSS. (e.g. Cod. Jaman). The stripping off of the } from the ending jj is common in the names of persons and places (6.0. προ), LXX. Σολομών and Mv); we write at pleasure either ἡ or n— (e.g. 1132), Olsh. ὃ 2157. 7728 (1528) of the nature of a proper name, is already found in its full form ji728 at xv. 11, along with PND; the two synonyms are, as was there shown, not wholly alike in the idea they present, as the underworld and realm of death, but are related to each other almost the same as Hades and Gehenna; }175~ is what is called? in the Jonathan-Targum 82738 3, the place of destruction, i.e of the second death (82°30 ND). The proverb places Hades and Hell on the one side, and the eyes of man on the other, on the same line in respect of their insatiableness. To this Fleischer adds the remark: cf. the Arab. afayn [a tamlaha alla altrab, nothing fills the eyes of man but at last the dust of the grave— a strikingly beautiful expression! If the dust of the grave fills the open eyes, then they are full—fearful irony! The eye is the instrument of seeing, and consequently in so far as it always looks out farther and farther, it is the instrument and the representation of human covetousness. The eye is filled, is satisfied, is equivalent to: human covetousness is appeased. But first “the desire of the eye,’ 1 John ii. 16, is meant in the proper sense. The eyes of menare not satisfied in looking and contemplating that which is attractive and new, and no command is more difficult to be fulfilled than that in Isa. xxxiii. 15, “...that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.” There is therefore no more inexhaustible means, tmpie speculationis, than the desire of the eyes.

There follow here two proverbs which have in common with each other the figures of the crucible and the mortar:

Ver. 21 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, And a man according to the measure of his praise; i.e. Silver and gold one values according to the result of the smelting crucible and the smelting furnace; but a man, according to the measure of public opinion, which presupposes that which is said in xii. 8, ‘ according to the measure of his wisdom is a man praised.” oom is not a ῥῆμα μέσον like our Leumund [renown], but it is a graduated idea which denotes fame down to evil Lob [fame], which is only Lod [praise] per antiphrasin. Ewald otherwise: “ according to the measure of his glorying;” or Hitzig better: “ according to the measure with which he praises himself, ” with the remark: “$m is not the act, the 1 Vid. Frankel, Zu dem Targum der Propheten (1872), p. 25.

glorifying of self, but the object of the glorying (cf. ΠΌΣΟ, j119), ze. that in which he places his glory.” Bdéttcher something further: “ one recognises him by that which he is generally wont to praise in himself and others, persons and things.” Thus the proverb is to be understood; but in connection with xii. 8 it seems to us more probable that S5np is thought of as going forth from others, and not as from himself. In line first, xvii. 3a is repeated; the second line there is conformable to the first, according to which it should be here said that the praise of a man is for him what the crucible and the furnace is for metal. The LXX., Syr., Targ., Jerome, and the Venet, read ‘>2n0 *DD, and thereby obtain more concinnity. Luther accordingly translates: A man is tried by the mouth of his praise, As silver in the crucible and gold in the furnace. Others even think to interpret man as the subject examining, and so they vocalize the words. ‘Thus e.g. Fleischer: Qualis est catinus argento et fornax auro, talis sit homo ori a quo laudatur, so that “ mouth of his praise” is equivalent to the man who praises him with his mouth. But where, as here, the language relatés to relative worth, the supposition for "BD, that it denotes, as at xli. 8, pro ratione, is tenable. And that the mouth of him who praises is a smelting crucible for him who is praised, or that the praised shall be a crucible for the mouth of him who praises, would be a wonderful comparison. The LXX. has here also an additional distich which has no place in the Heb. text. Ver. 22 Though thou bruise a fool in a mortar among grit with a

Iilwj. and ΦΉΣΩ has Pazer, not Iebia, which would separate more than the Dechi, and disturb the sequence of the thoughts. The first line is long; the chief disjunctive in the sphere of the Athnach is Dechi of ‘1, this disjoins more than the Pazer of

23, and this again more than the Legarmeh οἵ!Dyxn-nw. The Π of nipidoes not belong to the stem of the word (Hitzig), but is the article; Nid. (from ἢν, to shake, to break; according to Schultens, from 453, to crumble, to cut in pieces, after the form 1i’?, which is improbable) are bruised grains of corn (peeled grain, grit), here they receive this name in the act of being bruised; rightly Aquila and Theodotion, ἐν μέσῳ ἐμπτισ- σομένων (grains of corn in the act of being pounded or bruised), and the Venet. μέσον τῶν πτισανῶν. In ya (thus to be written after Michlol 436, not Ya, as Heidenheim writes it without any authority) also the article is contained. ΠΣ is the vessel, and the 3 of ‘ya is Beth instrumenti; Ὃν (of lifting up for the purpose of bruising) is the club, pestle (Luther: stempffel= | pounder); in the Mishna, Beza i. 5, this word denotes a pounder for the cutting out of flesh. The proverb interprets itself: folly has become to the fool as a second nature, and he is not to be delivered from it by the sternest discipline, the severest means that may be tried; it is not indeed his substance (Hitzig), but an inalienable accident of his substance.

Vers. 23-27. An exhortation to rural industry, and particularly to the careful tending of cattle for breeding, forms the conclusion of the foregoing series of proverbs, in which we cannot always discern an intentional grouping. Itis one of the Mashalodes spoken of vol. i. p. 12. It consists of 11=4-+ 7 lines.

Ver. 23 Give heed to the look of thy small cattle,

24 For prosperity continues not for ever; And does the diadem continue from generation to generation?

25 (But) the hay is gone, and the after-growth appears, And the grass of the mountains is gathered:

27 And there is plenty of goats’ milk for thy nourishment, And for the nourishment of thy house, And subsistence for thy maidens.

The beginning directs to the fut., as is not common in these proverbs, vid. xxvi. 26. With 1, to take knowledge, which is strengthened by the inf. intensivus, is interchanged 29 nv, which means at xxiv. 32 to consider well, but here, to be careful regarding anything. jN¥ is the small or little cattle, thus sheep and goats. Whether any? (here and at Isa. xvii. 2) contains the article is questionable (Gesen. ὃ 35. 2 A), and, since the herds are called O79, is not probable; thus: direct thy attention to the herds, that is; to this, that thou hast herds. “5 is the external side in general; here, the appearance which the sheep present; thus their condition as seen externally. In ver. 24 I formerly regarded "13 as a synonym of 13, to be understood of the produce of wool, or, with Hitzig, of the shearing of the meadow, and thus the produce of the meadow. But this interpretation of the word is untenable, and ver. 25 provides for ver. 24, thus understood, no natural continuation of thought. ‘That {DM signifies a store, fulness of possessions, property, and abundance, has already been shown under xv. 6; but 13 is always the mark of royal, and generally of princely dignity, and here denotes, per meton. signi pro re signata, that dignity itself. With the negative expression in 24a the interrogative in 240 is interchanged as at Job xl. 9, with the implied negative answer; 0%), of an oath (“ and truly not,” as at Isa. lxii. 8), presents the same thought, but with a passionate colouring here unnecessary. Rightly Fleischer: “ ready money, moveable property, and on the other hand the highest positions of honour, are far more easily torn away from a man, and secure to him far less of quiet prosperity, than husbandry, viewed particularly with respect to the rearing of cattle.” In other words: the possession of treasures and of a lofty place of power and of honour has not in itself the security of everlasting duration; but rural economy, and particularly the rearing of cattle, gives security for food and clothing. The Chethib 7 ab is found, eg. at Ex. iii. 15; the Kert 717) 572 substitutes the more usual form. If ver. 25 was an independent whole (Hitzig: grass vanishes and fresh green appears, etc.), then the meaning here and onward would be that in the sphere of husbandry it is otherwise than is said in ver. 24: there that which is consumed renews itself, and there is an enlarging circulation. But this contrast to ver. 24 must be expressed and formed unambiguously. The connection is rather this, that ver. 23 commends the rearing of cattle, ver. 24 confirms it, and 25 ff. discuss what real advantages, not dependent on the accidents of public and social life, it brings.

I rejoice to agree with Fleischer in the opinion that the perfects of ver. 25 form a complex hypothetical antecedent to ver.

26: Quum evanuerit gramen (sc. vetus) et apparuerint herbe recentes et collecta fuerint pabula montium, agni vestitui tuo (inservient) et pretium agri (sc. a te emendi) erunt hirci, i.e. then wilt thou nourish thy herds of sheep and goats with the grass on thy fields, and with the dried gathered hay; and these will yield for thee, partly immediately and partly by the money derived therefrom (viz. from the valuable goats not needed for the flocks), all that is needful for thy life. He also remarks, under 73, that it means to make a place void, empty (viz. to quit the place, évacuer la forteresse); hence to leave one’s fatherland or home, to wander abroad; thus, rhetorically and poetically of things and possessions: to disappear. SM (from 78M, to be green) is hay, and 8% the after-growing second crop (aftergrass); thus a meadow capable of being mowed a second time is thought of. O17 niaby (with Dag. dirimens, as e.g. 33}, Deut. xxxii. 32) are the herbage of the mountains. The time when one proceeds to sheep-shearing, ver. 25 cannot intend to designate; it sets before us an interesting rural harvest scene, where, after a plentiful ingathering of hay, one sees the meadows again overspread with new grass (Ewald); but with us the shearing of sheep takes place in the month of May, when the warm season of the year is just at hand. The poet means in general to say, that when the hay is mown and now the herbage is grown up, and also the fodder from the mountains (Ps. cvi. 20) has been gathered home, when thus the barns are filled with plenty, the husbandman is guaranteed against the future on all sides by his stock of cattle. non (from 3on, Arab. halyb, with halab) is the usual metaplastic connecting form of on, milk. ‘3 (from %, like ‘7 from Π), generally connected with the genitive of the person or thing, for which anything is sufficient (e.g. xxv. 16, 35, to which Fleischer compares Arab. hasbuha, tassuha kifayuha), has here the genitive of the thing of which, or in which, one has enough. The complex subjectconception is limited by ebia, and the governing "J has the subordinated disjunctive Legarmeh. OY is a word of two genders (epicoenum), Gesen. ὃ 107, 1d. In Ὁ) ΠῚ the influence of the Ρ still continues; one does not need to supply it meanwhile, since all that maintains and nourishes life can be called On (vita = victus), e.g. ili. 22, The LXX. translates ἼΠ}3 by

σῶν θεραπόντων, and omits (as also the Syr., but not the Syro- Hexap.) the last line as now superfluous; but that the maids attending to the cattlek—by whom we particularly think of milkers—are especially mentioned, intentionally presents the figure of a well-ordered household, full of varied life and activity (Job xl. 29).

This Mashal-ode, commending the rearing of cattle, is a boundary. The series of proverbs beginning with the next chapter is not, however, a commencement, like that at xxii. 17; and Hitzig’s supposition, that xxviii. 1-16 and xxii. 17 ff. have one and the same author, stands on a false foundation. The second proverb of the twenty-eighth chapter shows directly that this new series of proverbs is subordinated to the aim of the Hezekiah-collection beginning with xxv., and thus has to be regarded as an original component part of it. The traces of the post-exilian period which Hitzig discovers in xxviii. 1-16 are not sufficient to remove the origin of the proverbs so far down from the times of Hezekiah. We take the first group, xxviii. 1-11, together; for pa and 13:3’, pervading these eleven proverbs, gives to them, as a whole, a peculiar colouring; and xxviii. 12 presents itself as a new beginning, going back to ver. 2, which ver. 1 precedes as a prelude.

xxviii. 1 The godless flee without any one pursuing them; But the righteous are bold like a lion. We would misinterpret the sequence of the accents if we supposed that it denoted YY as obj.; it by no means takes }777)S) as a parenthesis. yw belongs thus to D2 as collective sing. (cf. e.g. Isa. xvi. 4b);* in 16, MOD, as comprehensive or distributive (individualizing) singular, follows the plur. subject. One cannot, because the word is vocalized 533 and not 7°533, regard no as an attributive clause thereto (Ewald, like Jerome, quasi leo confidens); but the article, denoting the idea of kind, does not certainly always follow >. We say, indifferently, 82 or “83, pab3 or ΝΟ, and always 783, not N82. In itself, indeed, ΠΣ may be used absolutely: he is confident, undismayed, of the lion as well as of the leviathan, Job xl. 23. But

1The Targum of xxviii. 1a is, in Bereschith rabba, c. 84, Nw Pry ab yoy xy; that lying before us is formed after the Peshito.

it is suitable thus without any addition for the righteous, and 1D) and nd. correspond to each other as predicates, in accordance with the parallelism; the accentuation is also here correct. The perf. 103 denotes that which is uncaused, and yet follows: the godless flee, pursued by the terrible images that arise in their own wicked consciences, even when no external danger threatens. The fut. nya denotes that which continually happens: the righteous remains, even where external danger really threatens, bold and courageous, after the manner of a young, vigorous lion, because feeling himself strong in God, and assured of his safety through Him.

Ver. 2. There now follows a royal proverb, whose key-note is the same as that struck at xxv. 2, which states how a country falls into the οὐκ ἀγαθόν of the rule of the many:

Through the wickedness of a land the rulers become many; And through a man of wisdom, of knowledge, authority continues. If the text presented Y¥B2 as Hitzig corrects, then one might think of a political revolt, according to the usage of the word, 1 Kings xii. 19, etc.; but the word is Y¥53,' and YW (from yw, dirumpere) is the breaking through of limits fixed by God, apostasy, irreligion, e.g. Mic. i. 5. But that many rulers for a land arise from such a cause, shows a glance into the Book of Hosea, e.g. vil. 16: “ They return, but not to the Most High (sursum); they are become like a deceitful bow; their princes shall then fall by the sword;” and viii. 4: “They set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not.” The history of the kingdom of Israel shows that a land which apostatizes from revealed religion becomes at once the victim of party spirit, and a subject of contention to many would-be rulers, whether the fate of the king whom it has rejected be merited or not. But what is now the contrast which 26 brings forward? The translation by Bertheau and also by Zockler is impossible: “ but through intelligent, prudent men, he (the prince) continueth long.” For 2a does not mean a frequent changing of the throne, which in itself may not be a punishment for the sins of the people, but the appearance at the same time of many pretenders to the throne, as was the

1Thus to be written with Gaja here and at xxix. 6, after the rule of Metheg-Setzung, § 42.

case in the kingdom of Israel during the interregnum after the death of Jeroboam 11.) or in Rome at the time of the thirty tyrants; 7] 8" must thus refer to one of these “many” who usurp for a time the throne. O72 may also mean, xxiii. 28, inter homines; but O38, with adjective following, e.g. xi. 7, xii. 23, xvii. 18, xxi. 16, always denotes one; and that translation also changes the {3 into a “so,” “ then” introducing the concluding clause, which it altogether disregards as untranslatable. But equally impossible is Béttcher’s: “ among intelligent, prudent people, one continues (in the government),” for then the subject-conception on which it depends would be slurred over. Without doubt {3 is here a substantive, and just this subject-conception. That it may be a substantive has been already shown at xi. 19. There it denoted integrity (properly that which is right or genuine); and accordingly it means here, not the status quo (Fleischer: idem rerum status), but continuance, and that in a full sense: the jurisdiction (properly that which is upright and right), te. this, that right continues and is carried on in the land. Similarly Heidenheim, for he glosses [9 by yaxn i202; and Umbreit, who, however, unwarned by the accent, subordinates this 13 [in the sense of “right” to YT as its object. Zéckler, with Bertheau, finds a difficulty in the asyndeton YF P32. But these words also, Neh. x. 29, stand together as a formula; and that this formula is in the spirit and style of the Book of Proverbs, passages such as xix. 25, xxix. 7’ show. A practical man, and one who is at the same time furnished with thorough knowledge, is thus spoken of, and prudence and knowledge of religious moral character and worth are meant. What a single man may do under certain circumstances is shown in xxi. 22; Eccles. ix. 15. Here one has to think of a man of understanding and spirit at the helm of the State, perhaps as the nearest counsellor of the king. By means of such an one, right continues long (we do not need to supply nin after “continues long”). If, on the one side, the State falls asunder by the evil conduct of the inhabitants of the land, on the other hand a single man who unites in himself sound understanding and higher knowledge, for a long time holds it together.

Ver. 3. A proverb of a tyrant here connects itself with that of usurpers:

A poor man and an oppressor of the lowly— A sweeping rain without bringing bread.

Thus it is to be translated according to the accents. Fleischer otherwise, but also in conformity with the accents: Quales sunt vir pauper et oppressor miserorum, tales sunt pluvia omnia secum abripiens et qui panem non habent, i.e. the relation between a poor man and an oppressor of the needy is the same as that between a rain carrying all away with it and a people robbed thereby of their sustenance; in other words: a prince or potentate who robs the poor of their possessions is like a pouring rain which floods the fruitful fields—the separate members of the sentence would then correspond with each other after the scheme of the chiasmus. But the comparison would be faulty, for Ὁ 723 and on? PS fall together, and then the explanation would be zdem per idem. A “sweeping rain” is one which has only that which is bad, and not that which is good in rain, for it only destroys instead of promoting the growth of the corn; and as the Arab, according to a proverb compared by Hitzig, says of an unjust sultan, that he is a stream without water, so an oppressor of the helpless is appropriately compared to a rain which floods the land and brings no bread. But then the words, “a poor man and an oppressor of the lowly,” must designate one person, and in that case the Heb. words must be accentuated, DT pean we 123 (cf. xxix. 4a). For, that the oppressor of the helpless deports himself toward the poor man like a sweeping rain which brings no bread, is a saying not intended to be here used, since this is altogether too obvious, that the poor man has nothing to hope for from such an extortioner. But the comparison would be appropriate if 3a referred to an oppressive master; for one who belongs to a master, or who is in any way subordinated to him, has before all to expect from him that which is good, as a requital for his services, and as a proof of his master’s condescending sympathy.

It is thus asked whether “a poor man and an oppressor of the lowly” may be two properties united in the person of one master. This is certainly possible, for he may be primarily a poor official or an upstart (Zockler), such as were the Roman proconsuls and procurators, who enriched themselves by impoverishing their provinces (cf. LX X. xxviii. 15); or a hereditary proprietor, who seeks to regain what he has lost by extorting it from his relatives and workmen. But w > (poor) is not sufficient to give this definite feature to the figure of the master; and what does this feature in the figure of the master at all mean? What the comparison 30 says is appropriate to any oppressive ruler, and one does not think of an oppressor of the poor as himself poor; he may find himself in the midst of shattered possessions, but he is not poor; much rather the oppressor and the poor are, as e.g. at xxix. 13, contrasted with each other. Therefore we hold, with Hitzig, that wn of the text is to be read rosh, whether we have to change it into wx, or to suppose that the Jewish transcriber has here for once slipped into the Pheenician writing of the word;! we do not interpret, with Hitzig, UX 133 in the sense of ἄνθρωπος δυνάστης, Sir. viii. 1, but explain: aman (or master = 33) is the head (cf. e.g. Judg. xi. 8), and oppresses the helpless. This rendering is probable, because &1 723, a poor man, is a combination of words without a parallel; the Book of Proverbs does not once use the expression W ὗς, but always simply 2 (e.g. xxviii. 6, xxix. 18); and 733 1s compatible with D3N and the like, but not with wn. If we stumble at the isolated position of wn, we should consider that it is in a certain measure covered by 01; for one has to think of the 733, who is the ws, also as the ws» of these Ὁ δ, as one placed in a high station who numbers poor people among his subordinates. The LXX. translates ἀνδρεῖος ἐν ἀσεβείαις as if the words of the text were yw 23 (cf. the interchange of 733 and 33 in both texts of Ps, xviii. 26), but what the LX X. read must have been ΡῈ vane a3 (Isa. v. 22); and what can W323 here mean? The statement here made refers to the ruinous conduct of a 133, a man of standing, or 33, a high lord, ἃ “ wicked ruler,” xxviii. 15. On the contrary, what kind of rain the rule of an ideal governor is compared to, Ps. Ixxii. 1-8 tells. Ver. 4 They who forsake the law praise the godless;

But they who keep the law become angry with them, viz. the godless, for ¥¥1 is to be thought of collectively, as at ver. 1. They who praise the godless turn away from the revealed word of God (Ps. Ixxiii. 11-15); those, on the contrary, who are true to God’s word (xxix. 18) are aroused against them (vid. regarding ΠΣ, xv. 18), they are deeply moved by their conduct, they cannot remain silent and let their wickedness go unpunished; 77307 is zeal (excitement) always expressing itself, passing over into actions (syn. MynT, Job xvii. 8).

But they who seek Jahve understand all. Regarding the gen. expression Y1"'W28, vid. under ii. 14. He who makes wickedness his element, falls into the confusion of the moral conception; but he whose end is the one living God, gains from that, in every situation of life, even amid the greatest difficulties, the knowledge of that which is morally right. Similarly the Apostle John (1 John ii. 20): “ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (οἴδατε πάντα): 2.e., ye need to seek that knowledge which ye require, and which ye long after, not without yourselves, but in the new divine foundation of your personal life; from thence all that ye need for the growth of your spiritual life, and for the turning away from you of hostile influences, will come into your consciences. It is a potential knowledge, all-comprehensive in its character, and obviously a human relative knowledge, that is here meant.

Ver. 6. What is stated in this proverb is a conclusion from the preceding, with which it is also externally connected, for w (= ws), yw, 39, and now wr, follow each other:

Than a double-going deceiver who is rich thereby. A variation of xix. 1. Stainlessness, integritas vite, as a consequence of unreserved devotion to God, gives to a man with poverty a higher worth and nobility than riches connected with falsehood which “ halts between two opinions” (1 Kings xvili. 21), and appears to go one way, while in reality it goes another. The two ways 0!275 (cf. Sir. ii. 12, οὐαί ἁμαρτωλῷ.. ἐπιβαίνοντι ἐπὶ δύο τρίβους) are, as ver. 18, not ways going aside to the right or to the left of the right way, but the evil way which the deceiver truly walks in, and the good way which he pretends to walk in (Fleischer); the two ways of action placed over against one another, by one of which he masks the other. Ver. 7 He who keepeth instruction is a wise son; But he that is a companion of profligates bringeth his father into shame. We have translated mn at ver. 4 by “law;” here it includes the father’s instruction regarding the right way of life. Min 143, according to the nearest lying syntax, has to be taken as pred. Dit are such as squander their means and destroy their health, vd. under xxiii. 20f. 1 signifies, as frequently from the idea of (cf. xxix. 3) pasturing, or properly of tending, to take care of, and to have fellowship with. Ὁ Ὁ5" [shall put to shame] denotes both that he himself does disgrace to him, and that he brings disgrace to him on the part of others. Ver. 8. This verse continues a series of proverbs (commencing in ver. 7) beginning with a participle: He who increaseth his wealth by interest and usury, Gathereth it for one who is benevolent toward the lowly. Wealth increased by covetous plundering of a neighbour does not remain with him who has scraped it together in so relentless a manner, and without considering his own advantage; but it goes finally into the possession of one who is merciful towards the poor, and thus it is bestowed in a manner that is pleasing to God (cf. xiii. 22, Job xxii. 16f.). The Keri, which drops the second 3, appears to wish to mitigate the sharpness of the distinction of the second idea supposed in its repetition. But Lev. xxv. 35-37, where an Israelite is forbidden to take usury and interest from his brother, the two are distinguished; and Fleischer rightly remarks that there ἽΝ) means usury or interest taken in money, and n'20N usury or interest taken in kind; i.e., of that which one has received in loan, such as grain, or oil, etc., he gives back more than he has received. In other words: 2) is the name of the interest for the capital that is lent, aad 379, or, as it is here called mann, the more, the eddkiion thereto, the increase (Luther: vbersatz). This meaning of gain by means of lending on interest remains in JW); but ΠΣ, according to the later usus log., signifies gain by means of commerce, thus business-profit, vid. Baba Mezia, v. 1. Instead of 33832, more recent texts have the ral* ΝΞ, pine also is, as xiv. 31, xix. 17, part. Kal, not inf. Poel: ad largiendum pauperibus (Merc., Ewald, Bertlibsa)s for | there the person of him who presents the gift is undated: but just this, that it is another and better-disposed, for whom, without having it in view, the collector gathers his stores, is the very point of the thought. Ver. 9 He who turneth away his ear not to hear of the law, Even his prayer is an abomination. Cf. xv. 8 and the argument 1 Sam. xv. 22. Not only the evil which such an one does, but also the apparent good is an abomination, an abomination to God, and ¢o ipso also in itself: morally hollow and corrupt; for it is not truth and sincerity, for the whole soul, the whole will of the suppliant, is not present: he is not that for which he gives himself out in his prayer, and does not earnestly seek that which he presents and expresses a wish for in prayer. Ver. 10. A tristich beginning with a participle:

But the innocent shall inherit that which is good. In the first case, xxvi. 27 is fulfilled: the deceiver who leads astray falls himself into the destruction which he prepared for others, whether he misleads them into sin, and thus mediately prepares destruction for them, or that he does this immediately

1 Τῇ, as Hitzig, after J. H. Michaelis, remarks, the word were Ben-Asher’s ΣΎ ΞΡ, then it would be thus rightly punctuated by Clodius and the moderns. Kimchi, in the Wérterluch under pap, adduces this word as Ben-Asher’s. But the Masora knows nothing of it. It marks 33¥3)%, Jer.

xxxi. 10, with n° as unicum, and thus supposes for the passage before us 3282p, which certainly is found in mss., and is also marked on the margin with py ag unicum.

by enticing them into this or that danger; for 37 7113 may be understood of the way of wicked conduct, as well as of the experience of evil, of being betrayed, robbed, or even murdered. That those who are misled are called Ὁ), explains itself in the latter case: that they are such as he ought to show respect towards, and such as deserved better treatment, heightens the measure of his guilt. If we understand being morally led astray, yet may we not with Hitzig here find the ‘“‘ theory ” which removes the punishment from the just and lays it on the wicked. The clause xi. 8 is not here applicable. The first pages of the Scripture teach that the deceiver does not by any means escape punishment; but certainly the deceiver of the upright does not gain his object, for his diabolical joy at the destruction of such an one is vain, because God again helps him with the right way, but casts the deceiver so much the deeper down. As the idea of 31 717 has a twofold direction, so the connections of the words may be genitival (via mali) as well as adjectival (via mala), insnwa is not incorrectly written for inmwa, for NY occurs (only here) with min’ as its warrant both from n¥, to bend, to sink; cf. mit under iv. 24. In line third, opposite to “he who misleads,” stand “the innocent” (pious), who, far from seeking to entice others into the evil way and bring them to ruin, are unreservedly and honestly devoted to God and to that which is good; these shall inherit good (cf. iii. 35); even the consciousness of having made no man unhappy makes them happy; but even in their external relations there falls to them the possession of all good, which is the divinely ordained reward of the good.

Ver. 11 A rich man deems himself wise; But a poor man that hath understanding searcheth him out, or, as we have translated, xviii. 17, goes to the bottom of him, whereby is probably thought of the case that he seeks to use him as a means to an ignoble end. The rich man appears in his own eyes to be a wise man, i.e. in his self-delusion he thinks that he is so; but if he has anything to do with a poor man who has intelligence, then he is seen through by him. Wisdom is a gift not depending on any earthly possession. We take vers. 12-20 together. A proverb regarding riches closes this group, as also the foregoing is closed, and its commencement is related in form and in its contents to ver. 2:

Yer. 12 When righteous men triumph, the glory is great; And when the godless rise, the people are searched for.

The first line of this distich is parallel with.xxix. 2; cf. xi. 10a, lla: when the righteous rejoice, viz. as conquerors (cf. 6.6. Ps. Ix. 8), who have the upper hand, then ΠΝ ΒΡ, bright prosperity, is increased; or as Fleischer, by comparison of the Arab. yawm alazynt (day of ornament = festival day), explains: so is there much festival adornment, z.e. one puts on festival clothes, signum pro re signata: thus all appears festal and joyous, for prosperity and happiness then show themselves forth. 37 is adj. and pred. of the substantival clause; Hitzig regards it as the attribute: “then is there great glory;” this supposition is possible (vid. vil. 26, and under Ps. Ixxxix. 51), but here it is purely arbitrary. 28a is parallel with 12d: if the godless arise, attain to power and prominence, these men are spied out, ἴ.6. as we say, after Zeph. i. 12, they are searched for as with lamps. O7NX WBN is to be understood after Obadiah, ver. 6, ef. ii, 4: men are searched out, 1.6. are plundered (in which sense Heidenheim regards wan as here a transposition from svn), or, with reference to the secret police of despotism: they are subjected to an espionage. But a better gloss is DJS 70" 28a: the people let themselves be sought for, they keep themselves concealed in the inside of their houses, they venture not out into the streets and public places (Fleischer), for mistrust and suspicion oppress them all; one regards his person and property nowhere safer than within the four walls of his house; the lively, noisy, variegated life which elsewhere rules without, is as if it were dead.

Ver. 13 He that denieth his sin shall not prosper;

But he that acknowledgeth and forsaketh it shall obtain mercy. Thus is this proverb translated by Luther, and thus it lives in the mouth of the Christian people. He who falsely disowns, or with self-deception excuses, if he does not altogether justify his sins, which are discernible as D'Yw, has no success; he remains, after Ps. xxxii., in his conscience and life burdened with a secret ban; but he who acknowledges (the LXX. has ἐξηγούμενος instead of ἐξομολογούμενος, as it ought to be) and forsakes (for the remissio does not follow the confessio, if there is not the accompaniment of nova obedientia) will find mercy (ony, as Hos. xiv. 4). In close connection therewith stands the thought that man has to work out his salvation “with fear and trembling” (Phil. 11. 12). Ver. 14 Well is it with the man who feareth always: But he that is stiff-necked shall fall into mischief.

The Piel 175 occurs elsewhere only at Isa. li. 13, where it is used of the fear and dread of men; here it denotes the anxious concern with which one has to guard against the danger of evil coming upon his soul. Aben Ezra makes God the object; but rather we are to regard sin as the object, for while the truly pious is one that “ fears God,” he is at the same time one that “‘feareth evil.’ The antithesis extends beyond the nearest lying contrast of fleshly security; this is at the same time more or less one who hardens or steels his heart (ia? nwpd), viz. against the word of God, against the sons of God in his heart, and against the affectionate concern of others about his soul, and as such rushes on to his own destruction (772 DIB’, as at xvii. 20).

Ver. 15 A roaring lion and a ravening bear Is a foolish ruler over a poor people, i.e. a people without riches and possessions, without lasting sources of help,—a people brought low by the events of war and by calamities. To such a people a tyrant is a twofold terror, like a ravenous monster. The LXX. translate yw Spin by ὃς τυραννεῖ πτωχὸς ὦν, as if & had been transferred to this place from ver. ὃ. But their translation of pwn, xxix. 7, wavers between ἀσεβής and πτωχός, and of the bear they make a wolf 2381, dialectical 3.1. PPw designates a bear as lingering about, running hither and thither, impelled by extreme hunger (Venet. ἐπιοῦσα), from PPY = pw, to drive, which is said of nimble running, as well as of urging impulses (cf. under Gen. 111, 16), viz. hunger.

O prince devoid of understanding and rich in oppression! He that hateth unrighteous gain continueth long.

The old interpreters from the LXX. interpret ΠΡΟ. 30 as pred. (as also Fleischer: princeps qui intelligentie habet parum idem oppresstonis exercet multum); but why did not the author use the word $35 or 8171 instead of this ambiguous inconvenient 12 Hitzig regards the first term as a nominative absolute, which does not assume a suffix in the second line. But examples such as 27a, xxvii. 7), are altogether of a different sort; there occurs a reference that is in reality latent, and only finds not expression; the clause following the nominative is related to it as its natural predicate, but here 15d is an independent clause - standing outside of any syntactical relation tol5a. Heidenheim has acknowledged that here there lies before us a proverb not in the form of a mere declaration, but of a warning address, and thus also it is understood by Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, and Zockler. The accentuation seems to proceed on the same supposition. It is the only passage in the Book of Proverbs where 1°33, of the supreme ruler of the people, and where the plur. M237, occur; it is not therefore at all strange if the proverb also has something strange in its formation. Often enough, proverbs are in the form of an address to a son, and generally to their reader; why not also one at least to the king? It isa proverb as when I say: Oh thou reckless, merry fellow! he who laughs much will sometimes weep long. ‘Thus here the address is directed to the prince who is devoid of all wisdom and intelligence, which are necessary for a prince; but on this account the more earnest in exhortation to say to him that only one who hates defrauding the people attains an old age; thus that a prince who plunders the people wantonly shortens his life as a man, and his position as a ruler (cf. O72, xxiv. 22). The Keri si has the tone thrown back on the ipemalis as the Chethib say would also have it, cf. NDP, vii. 9. The relation of a plur. subj. to a sing. cial is as “a xxvil. 16. Regarding Y¥3, vid, under i. 19. A confirmation of this proverb directing itself to princes is found in Jer. xxii. 13-19, the woe pronounced upon Jehoiakim. And a glance at the woe pronounced in Hab. il, 12, shows how easily ver. 17 presents itself in connection.

Ver. 17 A man burdened with the guilt of blood upon his soul Fleeth to the pit; let no one detain him.

Luther translates: “A man that doeth violence to the blood of any one,” as if he had read the word Py. Lowenstein persuades himself that PY¥Y may mean “having oppressed,” and for this refers to Wa29, having clothed, in the ‘“Mishna YI, 33}, Lat. coenatus, juratus; but none of all these cases are of the same nature, for always the conduct designated is interpreted as a suffering of that which is done, e.g. the drawing on, as a being clothed; the riding, asa being ridden, etc. Of ΡΨ, in the sense of the oppression of another, there is no such part. pass. as throws the action as a condition back upon the subject. ‘This is valid also against Aben Ezra, who supposes that PYY means oppressing after the forms TIN, “SW, pov, for of pr, settled = dwelling, that which has just μέσῃ ant is true; that WN 15 equivalent to 738, cf. regarding it under xxx. 1, and that WY, Ps. exxxvii. 8, is equivalent to ὙΠ), is not true. Kimchi adds, under the name of his father (Joseph Kimchi), also 0in’, Jer. ix. 7 = πὶ; but that “slaughtered” can be equivalent to slaughtering is impossible. Some mss. have the word Py, which is not inadmissible, but not in the sense of “ accused” (Lowenstein), but: persecuted, exposed to war; for PUY signifies to treat hostilely, and post-bibl. generally to aspire after or pursue anything, eg. TiN 172 Pidy, R. wy (whence Piel contrectare, cf. Isa. xxiii. 2, according to which pwy appears to be an intensifying of this nyy). However, there is no ground for regarding PY" as not original, nor in the sense of “hard pressed;” for it is not used of avenging persecution, but: inwardly pressed, for Isa. xxxviii. 14 ΠΡῸΣ also signifies the anguish of a guilty conscience. Whoever is inwardly bowed down by the blood of a man whom he has murdered, betakes himself to a ceaseless flight to escape the avenger of blood, the punishment of his guilt, and his own inward torment; he flees and finds no rest, till at last the grave (3 according to the Eastern, 1.6. the Babylonian, mode of writing 73) receives him, and death accomplishes the only possible propitiation of the murderer. The exhortation, “let no one detain him,” does not mean that one should not lay hold on the fugitive; but, since 3 Ἢ) does not mean merely to hold fast, but to hold right, that

1 Bottcher supposes much rather pey = PWYID; also, xxv. 11, 137= 72719; but that does not follow from the defectiva scriptio, nor from anything else.

one should not afford him any support, any refuge, any covering or security against the vengeance which pursues him; that one should not rescue him from the arm of justice, and thereby invade and disturb the public administration of justice, which rests on moral foundations; on the other side, the Book of Proverbs, xxiv. 11 f., has uttered its exhortation to save a human life whenever it is possible to do so. The proverb lying before us cannot thus mean anything else than that no one should give to the murderer, as such, any assistance; that no one should save him clandestinely, and thereby make himself a partaker of his sin. Grace cannot come into the place of justice till justice has been fully recognised. Human sympathy, human forbearance, under the false title of grace, do not stand in contrast to this justice. We must, however, render 127129N"">N not directly as an admonition against that which is immoral; it may also be a declaration of that which is impossible: only let no one support him, let no one seek to deliver him from the unrest which drives him from place to place. This is, however, in vain; he is unceasingly driven about to fulfil his lot. But the translation: nemine eum sustinente (Fleischer), is inadmissible; a mere declaration of a fact without any subjective colouring is never ow 827. fut. Ver. 18 He who walketh blamelessly is helped, And he who is perverse in a double way suddenly perisheth.

. 7. Instead of ὈΞῪ py, ver. 6, there is here D'277 ΡΨ), Seiad: directed in a double way, or reflex bending himself. At ver. 6 we have interpreted the dual ὈΞῪ rightly, thus ΠΝ Ξ cannot refer back to one of these two ways; besides, 173 as fem. is an anomaly, if not.a solecism. NNS83 signifies, like the Aram. 87N3, either all at once (for which the Mish. nny, Aram. S712), or once (=NOS DYb3), and it signifies in the passage before us, not: once, aliguando, as Nolde, with Flacius, explains, but: all at once, 1.6. as Geier explains: penitus, sic ut pluribus casibus porro non-sit opus. Schultens compares:

Ver. 19 He who cultivateth his land is satisfied with bread, And he that graspeth after vanities is satisfied with poverty.

A variation of xii. 11. The pred. here corresponds to its contrast. On & (here and at xxxi. 7), instead of the more frequent WN), cf. x. 4.

To this proverb of the cultivation of the land as the sure source of support, the next following stands related, its contents being cognate:

Ver. 20 A strong, upright man is enriched with blessings;

D’AON WN, xx. 6, as well as Minox “ἐς, denotes a man bone fide:; but the aoe expression refers the description to a constancy and certainty in the relations of favour and of friendship, here to rectitude or integrity in walk and conduct; the plur. refers to the all-sidedness and the ceaselessness of the activity. i373 is related, as at x. 6: the idea comprehends blessings on the side of ene and of man, thus benedictio ret and EE voti. On the contrary, he who, without being careful as to the means, is in haste to become rich, remains not only unblessed, but also is not guiltless, and thus not without punishment; also this Π|9) N? (e.g. vi. 29), frequently met in the Mishle, is, like mi273, the union of two ideas, for generally the bibl. mode of conception and language comprehends in one, sin, guilt, and punishment.

With a proverb, in the first half of which is repeated the beginning of the second appendix, xxiv. 23, a new group commences:

Ver. 21 Respect of persons is not good; And for a morsel of bread a man may become a transgressor.

Line first refers to the administration of justice, and line second —the special generalized—to social life generally. The “ morsel of bread,” as example of a bribe by means of which the favour of the judge is purchased, is too low a conception. Hitzig well: “even a trifle, a morsel of bread (1 Sam. ii. 36), may, as it awakens favour and dislike within us, thus in general call forth in the will an inclination tending to draw one aside from the line of strict rectitude.” Geier compares A. Gellius’ Noct.

Att. i. 15, where Cato says of the Tribune Ceelius: Frusto panis conduct potest vel ut taceat vel ut loquatur. Ver. 22 The man of an evil eye hasteneth after riches, And knoweth not that want shall come upon him. Hitzig renders '3) &8 [the man of an evil eye] as appos. of the subject; but in that case the phrase would have been py yn vis nnd Snaa (cf. eg. xxix. 1). py yn (xxiii. 6) is the jealous, envious, grudging, and at the same time covetous man. It is certainly possible that an envious man consumes himself in illhumour without quietness, as Hitzig objects; but as a rule | there is connected with envy a passionate endeavour to raise oneself to an equal height of prosperity with the one who is the object of envy; and this zeal, proceeding from an impure motive, makes men blind to the fact that thereby they do not advance, but rather degrade themselves, for no blessing can rest on it; discontentedness loses, with that which God has assigned to us, deservedly also that which it has. The pret. bn33, the expression of a fact; the part. 9723, the expression of an habitual characteristic action; the word signifies preceps (qui preceps fertur), with the root-idea of one who is unbridled, who is not master of himself (vid. under Ps. ii. 5, and above at xx. 21). The phrase wavers between 5112) (Kimchi, under ὅπ2; and Norzi, after Codd. and old editions) and 2733 (thus, 6.9.» Cod. Jaman); only at Ps. xxx. 8 2733 stands unquestioned. ἽΡΠ [want] is recognised by Symmachus, Syr., and Jerome. To this, as the authentic reading, cf. its ingenious rendering in Bereschith Rabba, c. 58, to Gen. xxiii. 14, The LX-X. reads, from 22d, that a Ton, ἐλεήμων, will finally seize the same riches, according to which Hitzig reads 107, disgrace, shame (cf. xxv. 10). Ver. 23 He that reproveth a man who is going backwards, Findeth more thanks than the flatterer.

It is impossible that aj can be the suffix of IN8; the Talmud, Tamid 28a, refers it to God; but that it signifies: after my (Solomon’s) example or precedence (Aben Ezra, Ahron b. Josef, Venet., J. H. Michaelis), is untenable — such a name given by the teacher here to himself is altogether aimless. Others translate, with Jerome: Qui corripit hominem gratiam postea inveniet apud eum magis, quam ille qui per lingue blandi- menta decipit, for they partly purpose to read Ἰ3 ΠΝ, partly to give to ‘NN the meaning of postea. “INS, Ewald says, is a notable example of an adverb. Hitzig seeks to correct this adv. as at Neh. iii. 30 f., but where, with Keil, 9M is to be read; at Josh. ii. 7, where NX is to erased; and at Deut. ii. 30, where the traditional text is accountable. This *IN8 may be formed like 8 and ‘ND; but if it had existed, it would not be a ἅπαξ λεγ. The accentuation also, in the passage before us, does not recognise it; but it takes ΠΣ and ΟΝ together, and how otherwise than that it appears, as Ibn-Jachja in his Grammar, and Immanuel" have recognised it, to be a noun terminating in aj. It is a formation, like "253, 1 Kings vi. 10 (cf. Olshausen’s Lehrb. p. 428 f.), of the same termination as “1%, 2Π, and in the later Aram.-Heb. °3!, and the like. The variant ‘Nx, noticed by Heidenheim, confirms it; and the distinction between different classes of men (vid. vol. i. p. 39) which prevails in the Book of Proverbs favours it. Α ΠΣ D8 is defined, after the manner of Jeremiah (vii. 24): aman who is directed backwards, and not D25?, forwards. Not the renegade—for m1», opp. yw pono, does not lead to so strong a conception—but the retrograder is thus called in German: Riickldujige [one who runs backwards| or Rickwendige [one who turns backwards], who turns away from the good, the right, and the true, and always departs the farther away from them (Immanuel: going backwards in his nature or his moral relations). This centrifugal direction, leading to estrangement from the fear of Jahve, or, what is the same thing, from the religion of revelation, would lead to entire ruin if unreserved and fearless denunciation did not interpose and seek to restrain it; and he who speaks” so truly, openly, and earnestly home to the conscience of one who is on the downward course, gains for himself thereby, on the part of him whom he has directed aright, and on the part of all who are well disposed, better thanks (and also, on the part of God, a better reward, James for the following word, although toned on the first syllable, begins with guttural having the same sound.

v. 19 f.) than he who, speaking to him, smooths his tongue to say to him who is rich, or in a high position, only that which is agreeable. Laudat adulator, sed non est verus amator. The second half of the verse consists, as often (Ps. Ixxiii. 8; Job xxxill. 1; cf. Thorath Emeth, p. 51), of only two words, with Mercha Silluk.

wrong, Is a companion of the destroyer. The second line is related to xviii. 96. Instead of dominus perditionis there found, there is here MN’ WRX, vir perdens (perditor); the word thus denotes a man who destroys, not from revenge, but from lust, and for the sake of the life of men, and that which is valuable for men; thus the spoiler, the incendiary, etc. Instead of MX there, here we have 127 in the same sense. He who robs his parents, 1.6. takes to himself what belongs to them, and regards his doing so as no particular sin,’ because he will at last come to inherit it all (cf. xx. 21 with xix. 26), is to be likened to a man who allows himself in all offences against the life and property of his neighbour; for what the deed of such a son wants in external violence, it makes up in its wickedness, because it is a rude violation of the tenderest and holiest demands of duty. Ver. 25 The covetous stirreth up strife; But he that trusteth in Jahve is richly comforted.

Line first is a variation of xv. 18a; W53"2™M is not to be interchanged with ao-3m, xxl. 4. He is of a wide heart who haughtily puffs himself up, of a wide soul (cf. with Schultens ann wpa, of the opening up of the throat, or of revenge, Isa. v. 14; Hab. ii. 5) who is insatiably covetous; for 25 is the spiritual, and wa) the natural, heart of man, according to which the widening of the heart is the overstraining of self-consciousness, and the widening of the soul the overstraining of passion. Rightly the LXX., according to its original text: ἄπληστος ἀνὴρ κινεῖ (thus with Hitzig for κρινεῖ) νείκη. Line second is a variation of xvi. 20, xxix. 25. Over against the insatiable is he who trusts in God (NY 33, with Gaja to the vocal, concluding the word, for it follows a word accented on the first syllable, and beginning with a guttural; cf. ἐν xxix. 2; ‘', xxix. 18), that He will bestow upon him what is necessary and good for him. One thus contented is easily satisfied (compare with the word xi. 25, xiii. 4, and with the matter, x. 3, xiii. 24), is externally as well as internally appeased; while that other, never contented, has no peace, and creates dispeace around him. The following proverb assumes the 13 of the foregoing: Ver. 26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool; But he that walketh in wisdom shall escape. From the promise in the second line, Hitzig concludes that a courageous heart is meant, but when by itself 25 never bears this meaning. He who trusteth in his own heart is not merely one who is guided solely “ by his own inconsiderate, defiant impulse to act” (Zockler). The proverb is directed against a false subjectivity. The heart is that fabricator of thoughts, of which, as of man by nature, nothing good can be said, Gen. vi. 5, vill. 21. But wisdom ts a gift from above, and consists in the knowledge of that which is objectively true, that which is normatively godlike. 23n2 72h is he who so walks that he has in wisdom a secure authority, and has not then for the first time, when he requires to walk, need to consider, to reckon, to experiment. ‘Thus walking in the way of wisdom, he eseapes dangers to which one is exposed who walks in foolish confidence in his own heart and its changeful feelings, thoughts, imaginations, delusions. One who thoughtlessly boasts, who vainly dreams of victory before the tine, is such a person; but confidence in one’s own heart takes also a hundred other forms. Essentially similar to this proverb are the words of Jer. ix. 22 f., for the wisdom meant in 260 is there defined at ver. 23. Ver. 27 He that giveth to the poor suffereth no want; But he that covereth his eyes meeteth many curses. In the first line the pronoun $9, referring back to the subject noun, is to be supplied, as at xxvii. 7 ὌΣ He who gives to the poor has no want ("i0n), for God’s blessing reimburses

1 We take the opportunity of remarking that the tendency to form together certain proverbs after one catchword is found also in German books of proverbs; vid. Paul, Ueber die urspr. Anord. von Freidanks Bescheidenheit (1870), p. 12.

him richly for what he bestows. He, on the other hand, who veils (YY, ef. the Hithpa., Isa. lviii. 7) his eyes so as not to see the misery whe calls forth compassion, or as if he did not see the misery which has a claim on his compassion; he is (becomes) rich in curses, 1.6. is laden with the curses of those whose wants he cared not for; curses which, because they are deserved, change by virtue of a divine requital (vid. Sir. iv. 5f.; Tob. iv. 7) into all kinds of misfortunes (opp. ΓΙ 33" 21, 20a). TAIN is constructed after the form 173), 71) from V8,

The following proverb resembles the beginnings xxviii. 2, 12. The proverbs xxviii, 28, xxix. 1, 2, 3, form a beautiful square grasp, in which the first and third, and the second and fourth, correspond to one another.

Ver. 28 When the godless rise up, men hide themselves; And when they perish, the righteous increase. Line first is a variation of 12). Since they who hide themselves are merely called men, people, the meaning of 27 is probably not this, that the righteous then from all sides come out into the foreground (Hitzig), but that they prosper, multiply, and increase as do plants, when the worms, caterpillars, and the like are destroyed (Fleischer); Lowenstein glosses 12%. by 3, they become great = powerful, but that would be Elihu’s style, Job xxxiii. 12, which is not in common use; the names of masters and of iene in authority, 39, "3, 139, 7235, are all derived from 239, not from 737, The increase is to be understood of the prosperous growth (to become great = to increase, as perhaps also Gen. xxi. 10) of the congregation of the righteous, which gains in the overthrow of the godless an accession to its numbers; cf. xxix. 2, and especially 16. xxix. 1. A general ethical proverb here follows: A man often corrected who hardeneth his neck, Shall suddenly go to ruin without remedy.

Line second = vi. 156. The connection ΓΙ ΠῚ ΓΙ ws must make the nearest impression on a reader of the Book of Proverbs that they mean a censurer (reprehender), but which is set aside by what follows, for the genit. after WS is, xvi. 29, xxvi. 2], xxix. 10, xiii. 20, the designation of that which proceeds from the subject treated. And since ninzin, Ps. xxxvii. 15, Job xxiii. 4, denotes counter evidence, and generally rejoinders, thus in the first line a reasoner is designated who lets nothing be said to him, and nothing be shown to him, but contradicts all and every one. Thus e.g. Fleischer: vir qui correptus contradicit et cervicem obdurat. But this interpolated correptus gives involuntary testimony of this, that the nearest lying impression of the ‘IN δὴ suffers a change by TY ΠΩ: if we read nvipn (25) say with ‘in, the latter then designates the correptio, over against 15 E> is placed obstinate boldness (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther), and ‘tn shows itself thus to be gen. objecti, and we have to compare the gen. connection of wx, as at xviii. 23, xxi. 17, or rather at 1 Kings xx. 42 and Jer. xv. 10. But it is unnecessary, with Hitzig, to limit ‘in to divine infliction of punishment, and after Hos. v. 9, Isa. xxxvii. 3, to read N\N2N [punishment], which occurs, Ps. cxlix. 7, in the sense of punishment inflicted by man.’ Besides, we must think first not of actual punishment, but of chastening, reproving words; and the man to whom are spoken the reproving words is one whose conduct merits more and more severe censure, and continually receives correction from those who are concerned for his welfare. Hitzig regards the first line as a conditional clause: “Is a man of punishment stiff-necked?”... This is syntactically impossible. Only ἢ» Πῦρ could have such force: aman of punishment, if he... But why then did not the author rather write the words sim say nvipo? Why then could not sy πὸρ be a co-ordinated further description of the man? Cf. eg. Ex. xvii. 21. The door of penitence, to which earnest, well-meant admonition calls a man, does not alwaysremain open. He who with stiff-necked persistence in sin and in self-delusion sets himself in opposition to all endeavours to save his soul, shall one day suddenly, and without the prospect and possibility of restoration (cf. Jer. xix.11), become a wreck. Audi doctrinam st vis vitare ruinam. The general ethical proverb is here followed by one that is political: Ver. 2 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice; And when a godless man ruleth, the people mourn.

in such numbers that they are the party that give the tone, that form the predominant power among the people (Fleischer, cum inerementa captiunt justi), then the condition of the people is a happy one, and their voice joyful (xi. 10); if, on the contrary, a godless man or (after xxviii. 1) godless men rule, the people are made to sigh (OY Nos, with the Gaja, according to rule). “‘There is reason,” as Hitzig remarks, “why py should be placed first with, and then without, the article.’ In the first case it denotes the people as those among whom there is such an increase of the righteous; in the second case, the article is wanting, because it is not generally used in poetry; and, besides, its absence makes the second line consist of nine syllables, like the first. This political proverb is now followed by one of general ethics: Ver. 3 A man who loveth wisdom delighteth his father; And he who keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance.

Line first is a variation of x.1. ΠΤ has, according to rule, the Metheg, cf. θα. WX is man, without distinction of age, from childhood (Gen. iv. 1) up to ripe old age (Isa. Ixvi. 13); love and dutiful relation towards father and mother never cease. Line second reminds of xxviii. 7 (cf. xiii. 20).

Ver. 4 A king by righteousness bringeth the land to a good condition;

The Hiph. YN signifies to make it so that a person or matter comes to stand erect and stand fast (e.g. 1 Kings xv. 4); D7, to tear down, is the contrary of building up and extending (Ps. xxvill. 5), cf. D173, opp. ov, of the state, xi. 11. By ‘In WS is meant the bia, or a man of this kind; but it is questionable whether as a man of gifts, i.e. one «ἴω lets gifts be made to him (Grotius, Fleischer, Ewald, Bertheau, Zockler), or as a man of taxes, 1.6. who imposes bbe (Midrash, Aben Ezra, Ralbag, Rosenmiiller, Hitzig). Both interpretations are possible, for ‘1m means tax (lifting, raising = dedicating), freewill offerings, as well as gifts that are obligatory and required by the laws of nature. Since the word, in the only other place where it occurs, Ezek. xlv. 13-16, is used of the relation of the people to the prince, and denotes a legally-imposed tax, so it appears also here, in passing over from the religious sphere to the secular, to be meant of taxes, and that according to its fundamental conception of gifts, 1.9. such taxes as are given on account of anything, such as the produce of the soil, manufactures, heritages. Thus also is to be understood Aquila’s and Theodotion’s ἀνὴρ ἀφαιρεμάτων, and the rendering also of the Venet. ἐράνων. A man on the throne, covetous of such gifts, brings the land to ruin by exacting contributions; on the contrary, a king helps the land to a good position, and an enduring prosperity, by the exercise of right, and that in appointing a well-proportioned and fit measure of taxation. Ver. 5 A man who flattereth his neighbour Spreadeth a net for his steps. Fleischer, as Bertheau: vir qui alterum blanditiis circumvenit; but in the °Y there does not lie in itself a hostile tendency, an intention to do injury; it interchanges with ON, Ps. xxxvi. 3, and what is expressed in line second happens dds, without any intention on the part of the flatterer: the web of the flatterer before the eyes of a neighbour becomes, if he is caught thereby, a net for him in which he is entangled to his own taustburetion (Hitzig). penn signifies also, Without any external object, XxVlll. 23, i. 16, as jnternally transitive: to utter that which is smooth, 1.6. iat MOYB is, as Ps. lvii. 7= yr, for which it is the usual Pheenician word. Ver. 6 In the transgression of the wicked man lies a snare; But the righteous rejoiceth [ jubelt] and is glad.

Thus the first line is to be translated according to the sequence of the accents, Mahpach, Munach, Munach, Athnach, for the second Munach is the transformation of Dechi; 27 Ss thus, like YIWIX, xxviii. 5, go together, although the connection is not, like this, genitival, but adjectival. But there is also this sequence of the accents, Munach, Dechi, Munach, Athnach, which separates 31 and wx. According to this, Ewald translates: “in the transgression of one lies an evil snare;” but in that case the word ought to have been ΜῊ wip, as at xii. 13; for although the numeral 0°37 sometimes precedes its substantive, yet no other adjective ever does; passages such as Isa, xxviii, 21 and x. 30 do not show the possibility of this position of the words. In this sequence of accents the explanation must be: in the wickedness of a man is the evil of a snare, i.e. evil is the snare laid therein (Bottcher); but a reason why the author did not write »9 wp would also not be seen there, and thus we must abide by the accentuation 9 δ, The righteous also may fall, yet he is again raised by means of repentance and pardon; but in the wickedness of a bad man lies a snare into which having once fallen, he cannot again release himself from it, xxiv. 16. In the second line, the form 7, for }5, is - defended by the same metaplastic forms as Tt, Ps. xci. 6; y', Isa. xlii. 4; and also that the order of the words is not ny noe (LXX. ἐν χαρᾷ καὶ ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ; Luther: Srewet sich und hat wonne [rejoices and has pleasure]), is supported by the same sequence of ideas, Zech. 11. 14, cf. Jer. xxxi. 7: the Jubeln is the momentary outburst of gladness; the Freude [gladness], however, is a continuous feeling of happiness. To the question as to what the righteous rejoiceth over [ jubelt] and is glad [ freuet| because of, the answer is not: because of his happy release from danger (Zockler), but: because of the prosperity which his virtue procures for him (Fleischer). But the contrast between the first and second lines is not clear and strong. One misses the expression of the object or ground of the joy. Cocceius introduces into the second line a si lapsus fuerit. Schultens translates, justus vel succumbens triumphabit, after the Arab. rdn f. 0., which, however, does not mean succumbere, but subigere (vid. under Ps. ]xxvili. 65). Hitzig compares Arab. raym f. t., discedere, relinquere, and translates: “ but the righteous passeth through and rejoiceth.” Bdottcher is inclined to read ΠῚ ANT, he sees it (what?) and rejoiceth. All these devices, however, stand in the background compared with Pinsker’s proposal (Babylon.-Heb. Punktationssystem, p. 156): ** On the footsteps of the wicked man lie snares, But the righteous runneth and is glad,”

i.e. he runneth joyfully (like the sun, Ps. xix. 6) on the divinelyappointed way (Ps. cxix. 132), on which he knows himself threatened by no danger. The change of yvipa into yypa has xii. 13 against it; but yr may be regarded, after iv. 12, cf. xviii. 10, as the original from which } is corrupted.

Ver. 7 The righteous knoweth the cause of the poor, But the godless understandeth no knowledge. The righteous knoweth and recogniseth the righteous claims of people of low estate, z.e. what is due to them as men, and in particular cases; but the godless has no knowledge from which such recognition may go forth (cf. as to the expression, xix. 25). The proverb begins like xii. 10, which commends the just man’s compassion to his cattle; this commends his sympathy with those who are often treated as cattle, and worse even than cattle. The LXX. translates 7) twice: the second time reading 4 instead of pwn, it makes nonsense of it. Ver. 8 Men of derision set the city in an uproar, But wise men allay anger. Isa. xxvili. shows what we are to understand by ἤν WIN - men to whom nothing is holy, and who despise all authority. The Hiphil ΠῈΣ does not signify irretiunt, from MB (Venet. παγιδιοῦσι, after Kimchi, Aben Ezra, and others), but suflant, from mp (Rashi: yd): they stir up or excite the city, we. its inhabitants, so that they begin to burn as with flames, i.e. by the dissolution of the bonds of mutual respect and of piety, by the letting loose of passion, they disturb the peace and excite the classes of the community and individuals against each other; but the wise bring it about that the breathings of anger that has broken forth, or is in the act of breaking forth, are allayed. The anger is not that of God, as it is rendered by Jerome and Luther, and as 1n’5’ freely translated might mean. The Aram. err in regard to 1M5’ in passages such as vi. 19. Ver. 9 If a wise man has to contend with a fool, He [the fool] rageth and laugheth, and hath no rest.

Among the old translators, Jerome and Luther take the “ wise man” as subject even of the second line, and that in all its three members: vir sapiens si cum stulto contenderit, sive irascatur sive rideat, non inventet requiem. ‘Thus Schultens, C. B. Michaelis, Umbreit, Ewald, Elster, and also Fleischer: “ The

doubled Vav is correlative, as at Ex. xxi. 16, Lev. v. 3, and expresses the perfect sameness in respect of the effect, here of the want of effect. If the wise man, when he disputes with a fool, becomes angry, or jests, he will have no rest, ze. he will never bring it to pass that the fool shall cease to reply; he yields the right to him, and thus makes it possible for him to end the

The syntactical relation would be simpler if 05%) in 9a were vocalized as a hypothetical perfect. But we read for it the past DBY2. Ewald designates 9a as a conditional clause, and Hitzig remarks that the Lat. viro sapiente disceptante cum stulto corresponds therewith. It marks, like 1 Sam. ii. 13, Job i. 16, the situation from which there is a departure then with perf. consec.: if a wise man in the right is in contact with a fool, he starts up, and laughs, and keeps not quiet (supply {> as at xxviii. 27), or (without 15): there is no keeping quiet, there is no rest. The figure is in accordance with experience. Ifa wise man has any controversy with a fool, which is to be decided by reasonable and moral arguments, then he becomes boisterous and laughs, and shows himself incapable of quietly listening to his opponent, and of appreciating his arguments.

We now group together vers. 10-14. Of these, vers. 10 and 11 are alike in respect of the tense used; vers. 12-14 have in common the pronoun pointing back to the first member.

Ver. 10 Men of blood hate the guiltless And the upright; they attempt the life of such

The nearest lying translation of the second line would certainly be: the upright seek his soul (that of the guiltless). In accordance with the contrasted 1x3¥, the Aram. understand the seeking of earnest benevolent seeking, but disregarding the wa)

1 According to this the Targum 43AND xb) (he remains obstinate), according to which the s*pnni x5) (he does not lose his wits) of the Peshito is perhaps to be corrected. The distribution of the subjects is obscure.

in wierd;! Symmachus (ἐπιζητήσουσι), Jerome (querunt), and Luther thus also understand the sentence; and Rashi remarks that the phrase is here ΠΞΠ 1w9, for he rests; but mistrusting himself, refers to 1 Sam.xxi. 23. Ahron b. Josef glosses: to enter into friendship with him. Thus, on account of the centrast, most moderns, interpreting the phrase sensu bono, also Fleischer: probi autem vitam ejus conservare student. The thought is, as xii. 6 shows, correct; but the usus log. protests against this rendering, which can rest only on Ps. cxlii. 5, where, however, the poet does not say 5) 0} PX, but, as ie also the usus log. requires, wind, There are only Σ possible explanations which Aben Ezra enumerates: (1) they seek his, the bloody man’s, soul, 1.6. they attempt his life, to take vengeance against him, according to the meaning of the expressions as generally elsewhere used, e.g. at Ps. Ixiii. 10; (2) they revenge his, the guiltless man’s, life (L.XX. ἐκζητήσουσιν), which has fallen a victim, after the meaning in which elsewhere only 03 &p2 and W714 wb), Gen. ix. 5, occur. This second meaning also is thus not in accordance with the usage of the words, and against both meanings it is to be said that it is not in the spirit of the Book of Proverbs to think of the ov» [the upright, righteous] as executors of the sentences of the penal judicature. There thus remains’ the interpretation (3): the upright—they (the bloody men) seek the soul of such an one. The transition from the plur. to the sing. is individualizing, and thus the arrangement of the words is like Gen. xlvii. 21: “ And the people (as regards them), he removed them to the cities,’ Gesen. ὃ 145. 2. This last explanation recommends itself by the consideration that on and nw are cognate as to the ideas they represent,—let one call to mind the common expression "¥) DA [perfect and upright, e.g. Job i. 1, 8, ii. 3],—that the same persons are meant thereby, and it is rendered necessary by this, that the thought, “ bloody men hate the guiltless,” is incomplete; for the same thing may also be said of the godless in general. One expects to hear that just against the guiltless, 1.6. men walking in their inno- cence, the bloody-mindedness of such men is specially directed, and 10) says the same thing; this second clause first brings the contrast to the point aimed at. Lutz is right in seeking to confute Hitzig, but he does so on striking grounds. Ver. 11 All his wrath the fool poureth out; But the wise man husheth it up in the background. That inv is not meant here of his spirit (Luther) in the sense of quaecungue in mente habet (thus e.g. Fleischer) the contrast shows, for 73N3Y does not signify cohibet, for which 32vm (LX X. ταμιεύεται) would be the proper word: thus is not here used of passionate emotion, such as at xvi. 31; Isa. xxv. 4, xxxilil. 11. 32 is not here equivalent to Arab. sabbah, αἰνεῖν (Imman., Venet., and Heidenheim), which does not supply an admissible sense, but is equivalent to Arab. sabbakh, to quiet (Ahron b. Josef: ἤν ΒῸΡ = καταπαύειν), the former going back to the root-idea of extending (amplijicare), the latter to that of going to a distance, putting away: sabbakh, procul recessit, distitit, hence Mav, Ps, Ixxxix. 10, and here properly to drive off into the background, synon. 2 (Fleischer). But ὙΠΝΞ (only here with 3) is ambiguous. One might with Rashi explain: but the wise man finally, or afterwards (Symmachus, ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων; Venet. κατόπιν — κατόπισθε), appeaseth the anger which the fool lets loose; ζ.6.,ὄ if the latter gives vent to his anger, the former appeases, subdues, mitigates it (cf. 025082, ὝΠΕΡ, Isa. xlii. 23). But it lies still nearer to refer the antithesis to the anger of the wise man himself; he does not give to it unbridled course, but husheth it in the background, viz. in his heart. Thus Syr. and Targ. reading 82973, the former, besides 132¥N' (reputat eam), so also Aben Ezra: in the heart as the background of the organ of speech. Others explain: in the background, afterward, retrorsum, e.g. Nolde, but to which compescit would be more appropriate than sedat. Hitzig’s objection, that in other cases the expression would be ἸΞΊΡΞ, is answered by this, that with ΠΝ the idea of pressing back (of 8) is connected. The order of the words also is in favour of the meaning in recessu (cordis). Ire dilatio mentis pacatio (according to an old proverb). Ver. 12 A ruler who listens to deceitful words, All his servants are godless.

They are so because they deceive him, and they become so; for instead of saying the truth which the ruler does not wish to hear, they seek to gain his favour by deceitful flatteries, misrepresentations, exaggerations, falsehoods. Audiat rex gue preciptt lex. He does not do this, as the saying is, sicut rex ita grex (Sir. x. 2), in the sense of this proverb of Solomon. Ver. 13 The poor man and the usurer meet together— Jahve lighteneth the eyes of both.

A variation of xxil. 2, according to which the proverb is to be understood in both of its parts. That 0°23" WN is the contrast of 91, is rightly supposed in Temura 166; but Rashi, who brings out here a man of moderate learning, and Saadia, a man of a moderate condition (thus also the Targ. S*Y¥2 8123, after Buxtorf, homo mediocris fortune), err by connecting the word with yA, The LXX. δὰνειστοῦ καὶ χρεωφείλέτου (ἀλλήλοις συνελθόντων), which would be more correct inverted, for wx p’s9n is a man who makes oppressive taxes, high previous payments of interest; the verbal stem 725, Arab. tak, is a secondary to R. wak, which has the meanings of pressing together, and pressing firm (whence also the middle is named; cf. Arab. samym dlaklab, the solid=the middle point of the heart). 9A, with the plur. oD2n, scarcely in itself denotes interest, τόκος; the designation D°D3n vs includes in it a sensible reproach (Syr. afflictor), and a rentier cannot be so called (Hitzig). Luther: Reiche [rich men], with the marginal note: “who can practise usury as they then generally alldo?” Therefore Lowenstein understands the second line after 1 Sam. ii. 7: God enlighteneth their eyes by raising the lowly and humbling the proud. But this line, after xxii. 2b, only means that the poor as well as the rich owe the light of life (Ps. xiii, 4) to God, the creator and ruler of all things,—a fact which has also its moral side: both are conditioned by Him, stand under His control, and have to give to Him an account; or otherwise rendered: God maketh His sun to rise on the low and the high, the evil and the good (cf. Matt. v. 45)—an all-embracing love full of typical moral motive.’

after Legarmeh two conjunctives cannot occur. Also Norzi with Mchuppach Mercha isirregular, since Ben-Asher recognises only two examples of

Ver. 14 A king who judgeth the poor with truth, His throne shall stand for ever.

NN, as at Isa. xvi. 5 (synon. 72ON32, OWA, NWI), is equivalent to fidelity to duty, or a rani. full accomplishment of his duty asaruler with reference to the dispensing of justice; in other words: after the norm of actual fact, and of the law, and of his duty proceeding from both foaetiee We has in Codd., e.g. Jaman., and in the Venetian 1517, 21, rightly Rebia. Th that which (ised ΤΩΝ 3 DEW are more pare related than Π 3 p's, for of two conjunctives standing together the first always connects more than the second. D7 Nok WEW 15D is the truest representation of the logical grammatical relation. To 146 compare the proverb of the king, xvi. 12, xxv. 5.

A proverb with p2v, ver. 15, is placed next one with bay, but it begins a group of proverbs regarding discipline in the house and among the people:

Ver. 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom; But an undisciplined son is a shame to his mother.

With »2¥ [a rod], which xxii. 15 also commends as salutary, nnn refers to discipline by means of words, which must accompany bodily discipline, and without them is also necessary; the construction of the first line follows in number and gender the scheme xxvii. 9, Zech. vii. 7; Ewald, §339c. In the second line the mother is named, whose tender love often degenerates into a fond indulgence; such a darling, such a mother’s son, becomes a disgrace to his mother. Our “ ausgelassen,’ by which Hitzig translates ΠΡΟ, is used of joyfulness unbridled and without self-restraint, nals is in the passage before us too feeble a word; now is used of animals pasturing at liberty, wandering in freedom (Job xxxix. 5; Isa. xvi. 2): 7 WD WI is accordingly a child who is kept in by no restraint and no punishment, one left to himself, and thus undisciplined (Luther, Gesenius, Fleischer, and others).

Ver. 16 When the godless increase, wickedness increaseth; But the righteous shall see their fall.

this double accentuation to which this 7's does not belong; vid. Thorath Emeth, p. 12. That the penullima toning VND in several editions is false scarcely needs to be remarked. Jablonski rightly points with Mehuppach on the ult., and Zinnorith on the preceding open syllable.

The LXX. translation is not bad: πολλῶν ὄντων ἀσεβῶν πολλαὶ γίνονται ἁμαρτίαι (vid. regarding 12), ver. 2, xxviii. 28); but in the main it is only a Binsenwahrheit, as they say in Swabia, 1.6. a trivial saying. The proverb means, that if among a people the party of the godless increases in number, and at the same time in power, wickedness, z.e. a falling away into sins of thought and conduct, and therewith wickedness, prevails. When irreligion and the destruction of morals thus increase, the righteous are troubled; but the conduct of the godless carries the judgment in itself, and the righteous shall with joy perceive, in the righteous retribution of God, that the godless man will be cast down from his power and influence. This proverb is like a motto to Ps. xii. Ver. 17 Correct thy son, and he will give thee delight, And afford pleasure to thy soul.

The LXX. well translates 77 by καὶ ἀναπαύσει oe;* MIN denotes rest properly, a breathing again, ἀνάψυξις; and then, with an obliteration of the idea of restraint so far, generally (like the Arab. arah, compared by Fleischer) to afford pleasure or delight. The post.-bibl. language uses for this the words monn, and says of the pious that he makes nn nn) to his Creator, Berachoth 17a; and of God, that He grants the same to them that fear Him, Berach. 296; in the morning prayer of the heavenly spirits, that they hallow their Creator nm nn (with inward delight). Write with Codd. (also Jaman.) and older editions 17", not 372"; for, except in verbs m5, the suffix of this Hiphil form is not dageshed, e.g. JOS, 1 Kings ii. 26; cf. also 1 Kings xxii. 16 and Ps. 1.8. ΣΙΝ the ΣΧ. understands, after 2 Sam. i. 24 (ον τον; μετὰ κόσμου), also here, of ornament; but the word signifies dainty dishes—here, high spiritual enjoyment. As in vers. 15 and 16 a transition was made from the house to the people, so there now follows the proverb of the discipline of children, a proverb of the education of the people:

Ver. 18 Without a revelation a people becomes ungovernable; But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Regarding the importance of this proverb for estimating the relation of the Chokma to prophecy, vid. vol. i. p. 41. {ith is, according to the sense, equivalent to 7832, the prophetic revelation in itself, and as the contents of that which is proclaimed. Without spiritual preaching, proceeding from spiritual experience, a people is unrestrained (75), vid. regarding the punctuation at xxvill. 25, and regarding the fundamental meaning, at i. 25); it becomes ΜΒ, disorderly, Ex. xxxil. 25; wild vnd wiist, as Luther translates. But in the second line, according to the unity of the antithesis, the words are spoken of the people, not of individuals. It is therefore not to be explained, with Hitzig: but whoever, in such a time, nevertheless holds to the law, it is well with him! Without doubt this proverb was coined at a time when the preaching of the prophets was in vogue; and therefore this, “ but whoever, notwithstanding,” is untenable; such a thought at that time could not at all arise; and besides this, mn is in the Book of Proverbs a moveable conception, which is covered at least by the law in contradistinction to prophecy. Tora denotes divine teaching, the word of God; whether that of the Sinaitic or that of the prophetic law (2 Chron. xv. 3, cf. e.g. Isa. i. 10). While, on the one hand, a people is in a dissolute condition when the voice of the preacher, speaking from divine revelation, and enlightening their actions and sufferings by God’s word, is silent amongst them (Ps. Ixxiv. 9, cf. Amos viii. 12); on the other hand, that same people are to be praised as happy when they show due reverence and fidelity to the word of God, both as written and as preached. That the word of God is preached among a people belongs to their condition of life; and they are only truly happy when they earnestly and willingly subordinate themselves to the word of God which they possess and have the opportunity of hearing. WW (defective for WR) is the older, and here the poetic kindred form to Y2WS, xiv. 21, xvi. 20. From the discipline of the people this series of ήταν again returns to the discipline of home: Ver. 19 With words a servant will not let himself be bettered; For he understandeth them, but conformeth not thereto.

The Miph. 1bi2 becomes a so-called tolerative, for it connects with the idea of happening that of reaching its object: to become truly bettered (taught in wisdom, corrected), and thus to let himself be bettered. With mere words this is not reached; the unreasonable servant needs, in order to be set right, a more radical means of deliverance. This assertion demands confirmation; therefore is the view of von Hofmann (Schriftbew. 11. 2. 404) improbable, that 195 has in view a better-disposed servant: supposing that he is intelligent, in which case he is admonished without cause, then the words are also lost: he will let them pass over him in silence without any reply. This attempted explanation is occasioned by this, that 72¥ can signify nothing else than a response in words. If this were correct, then without doubt its fundamental meaning would correspond with"}; for one explains, with Lowenstein, “for he perceives it, and may not answer,” 1.6. this, that a reply cut off frustrates the moral impression. Or also: for he understands it, but is silent,—in prafractum se silentium configit (Schultens); and thus it is with the ancients (Rashi). But why should not 73y2 PS) itself be the expression of this want of any consequences? yD cannot certainly mean humiliation’ (Meiri, after Ex. x. 3, nyi2n), but why as an answer in words and not also a response by act (Stuart: a practical answer)? Thus the LXX. ἐὰν γὰρ καὶ νοήσῃ, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὑπακούσεται, according to which Luther: for although he at once understands it, he does not yet take it to himself. That my may mean obedience, the Aram. so understood, also at xvi. 4. It denoted a reply in the most comprehensive meaning of the word, vid. at xvi. 1. The thought, besides, is the same as if one were to explain: for he understands it, and is silent, 1.6. lets thee speak; or: he understands it, but that which he perceives finds no practical echo. Ver. 20 Seest thou a man hasty in his words? The fool hath more hope than he.

Cf. xxvi. 12. Such an one has blocked up against himself the path to wisdom, which to the fool, 1.6. to the ingenuous, stands open; the former is perfect, of the latter something may yet be made. In this passage the contrast is yet more precise, for the fool is thought of as the dull, which is the proper meaning

1The Syr. and Targ. also think on py, for they translate: ‘for he knows that he receives no strokes.”

of bD3, vid. under xvii. 24. There is more hope for the fool than for him, although he may be no fool in himself, who overthrows himself by his words. “The προπετὴς ἐν λόγῳ αὐτοῦ (Sir. ix. 18) has, in the existing case, already overleaped the thought; the 52 has it still before him, and comes at length, perhaps with his slow conception, to it” (Hitzig); for the ass, according to the fable, comes at last farther than the greyhound. Hence, in words as well as in acts, the proverb holds good, “ Kile mit Weile” [= festina lente]. Every word, as well as act, can only be matured by being thought out, and thought over. From this proverb, which finds its practical application to the affairs of a house, and particularly also to the relation to domestics, the group returns to the subject of instruction, which is its ground-tone. Ver. 21 If one pampers his servant from youth up, He will finally reach the place of a child.

The L.XX. had no answer to the question as to the meaning of jp. On the other hand, for P38, the meaning to fondle; delicatius enutrire, is perfectly warranted by the Aram. and Arab. The Talmud, Succa 528, resorts to the alphabet n3'’ps in order to reach a meaning for 0. How the Targ. comes to translate the word by 52 (outrooted) is not clear; the rendering of Jerome: postea sentiet eum contumacem, is perhaps mediated by the ἔσται γογγυσμός of Symmachus, who combines ὮΣ with p>, Niph. yoyyitew. The ὀθυνηθήσεται of the LXX., with the Syr., von Hofmann has sought to justify (Schriftbew. ii. 2. 404), for he derives ἢ) = i702 from 1), We must then punctuate 139; but perhaps the LX X. derived the word from }28 = i282, whether they pronounced it ἢ) (cf. ΤῊ = NIDN2) or 39. To follow them is not wise, for the formation of the word is precarious; one does not see what the speaker of this proverb, to whom the language presented a fulness of synonyms for the idea of complaint, meant by using this peculiar word. Linguistically these meanings are impossible: of Jerome, dominus = 73 (Ahron b. Josef, Meiri, and others); or: the oppressed = 73%, from 3. (Johlson); or: one who is sick = ΠῚ (Euchel). And Ewald’s “ undankbar” [unthankful], derived from the Arabic, is a mere fancy, since (Arab.) manuwan does not mean one who is unthankful, but, on the contrary, one who upbraids good deeds shown.! The ancients are in the right track, who explain ps» after the verb pa, Ps. Ixxii. 17 τ ἢ =13; the Venet., herein following Kimchi, also adopts the nominal form, for it translates (but without perceptible meaning) yovwous. Luther’s translation is fortunate: “ΤῈ a servant is tenderly treated from youth up, He will accordingly become a Junker [squire].”

The ideas represented in modern Jewish translations: that of a son (6.0. Solomon: he will at last be the son) and that of a master (Zunz), are here united. But how the idea of a son (from the verb }\3), at the same time that of a master, may arise, is not to be perceived in the same way as with Junker and the Spanish infante and hidalgo; rather with pin, as the ironical naming of the son (little son), the idea of a weakling (de Wette) may be connected. The state of the matter appears as follows:— The verb ἢ) has the meanings of luxuriant growth, numerous propagation; the fish has from this the Aram. name of 733, like the Heb. 34, from 135, which also means luxuriant, exuberant increase (vid. at Ps. Ixxii. 17). From this is derived }'2, which designates the offspring as a component part of a kindred, as well as 132, which, according as the » is interpreted infin. or local, means either this, that it sprouts up luxuriantly, the abundant growth, or also the place of luxuriant sprouting, wanton growing, abundant and quick multiplication: thus the place of hatching, spawning. The subject in 77" might be the fondled one; but it lies nearer, however, to take him who fondles as the subject, as in 21a. iN NN is either adv. accus. for NNN, or, as we preferred at xxiii. 32, it is the subj. in-

1%n Jahrb. xi. p 10 f. Ewald compares, in an expressive way, the Ethiopic manndna (Piel) to scorn; mentin, a reprobate; and manndni, one who is despised; according to which ἢ) could certainly designate ‘‘ a man despising scornfully his own benefactors, or an unthankful man.” But this verbal stem is peculiarly Ethiop., and is certainly not once found in Arab, For minnat (which Ewald compares) denotes benefaction, and the duty laid on one thereby, the dependence thereby produced. ‘The verb (Arab.) minn (= 122) signifies to divide; and particularly, partly to confer benefaction, partly to attribute benefaction, reckon to, enumerate, and thereby to bring out the sense of obligation. Thus nothing is to be derived from this verbal stem for }))10.

troducing, after the manner of a substantival clause, the following sentence as its virtual predicate: “one has fondled his servant from his youth up, and his (that of the one who fondles) end iss he will become a place of increase.” The master of the house is thought of along with his house; and the servant as one who, having become a man, presents his master with n‘3 12, who are spoilt scapegraces, as he himself has become by the pampering of his master. There was used in the language of the people, 1) ἴου 13, in the sense in which we name a degenerate son a “ Schénes Frichtchen” [pretty little fruit]; and 1139 is a place (house) where many ὮΝ) are; and a man (master of a house) who has many of them is one whose family has increased over his head. One reaches the same meaning if J) is rendered more immediately as the place or state of growing, increasing, luxuriating. The sense is in any case: he will not be able, in the end, any more to defend himself against the crowd which grows up to him from this his darling, but will be merely a passive part of it.

The following group begins with a proverb which rhymes by 119, with p20 of the foregoing, and extends on to the end of this Hezekiah collection:

Ver. 22 A man of anger stirreth up strife; And a passionate man aboundeth in trangression.

Line first is a variation of xv. 18a and xxviii. 25a. W*8 and bya as here, but in the reverse order at xxii. 24.1 5& here means anger, not the nose, viz. the expanded nostrils (Schultens). In ywar3) the ywa is, after xiv. 29, xxviii. 16, xx. 27, the governed genitive; Hitzig construes it in the sense of 31 yw, Ps. xix. 2, with ΠῚ)», but one does not say YWD 73; and that which is true of 0°37, that, after the manner of a numeral, it can precede its substantive (vid. under Ps. vii. 26, Ixxxix. 51), cannot be said of 32. Much (great) in wickedness denotes one who heaps up many wicked actions, and burdens himself with greater guilt (cf. ywe, ver. 16). The wrathful man stirreth up (vid. under xv. 18) strife, for he breaks through the mutual relations of men, which rest on mutual esteem and love, and by means of his passionate conduct he makes enemies of those against whom he thinks that he has reason for being angry; that on account of which he is angry can be settled without producing such hostility, but passion impels him on, and misrepresents the matter; it embitters hearts, and tears them asunder. The LXX. has, instead of 21, ἐξώρυξεν, of dreaming, mip (xvi. 27). Ver. 23 passes from anger to haughtiness:

But the lowly attaineth to honour. Thus we translate 7132 7onn (Lat. honorem obtinet) in accord with xi. 16, and mye with xvi. 19, where, however, θυ) is not adj. as here, but inf. The haughty man obscures the honour which he has by this, that he boasts immeasurably of it, and aspires yet more after it; the lowly man, on the other hand, obtains honour without his seeking it, honour before God and before men, which would be of no worth were it not connected with the honour before God. The LXX.: τοὺς δὲ ταπεινόφρονας ἐρείδει δόξῃ κύριος. This κύριος is indeed not contrary to the sense, but it is opposed to the style. Why the 24th verse should now follow is, as regards the contents and the expression, hard to say; but one observes that vers. 22-27 follow each other, beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet & (3), 3, Π, Π, 3, (n).

Ver. 24 He that taketh part with a thief hateth himself; He heareth the oath and confesseth not.

Hitzig renders the first member as the pred. of the second: “ he who does not bring to light such sins as require an atonement (Lev. v. 1ff.), but shares the secret of them with the sinner, is not better than one who is a partner with a thief, who hateth himself.” The construction of the verse, he remarks, is not understood by any interpreter. It is not, however, so cross,—for, understood as Hitzig thinks it ought to be, the author should have expressed the subject by nox yooh oy N?1,—but is simple as the order of the words and the verbal form require it. The oath is, after Lev. v. 1, that of the judge who adjures the partner of the thief by God to tell the truth; but he conceals it, and burdens his soul with a crime worthy of death, for from a concealer he becomes in addition a perjured man. Ver. 25 Fear of man bringeth a snare with it; But he that trusteth in Jahve is advanced.

It sounds strange, Hitzig remarks, that here in the Book of an Oriental author one should be warned against the fear of man. It is enough, in reply to this, to point to Isa. li.12f. One of the two translations in the LXX. (cf. Jerome and Luther) has found this “strange” thought not so strange as not to render it, and that in the gnomic aorist: φοβηθέντες καὶ αἰσχυν- θέντες ἀνθρώπους ὑπεσκελίσθησαν. And why should not nnn DIN be able to mean the fear of man (cowardice)? Perhaps not so that O58 is the gen. objecti, but so that DIN NTN means to frighten men, asin 1 Sam. xiv. 15. ody nan, a trembling of God; cf. Ps. Ixiv. 2; 2% IND, the fear occasioned by the enemy, although this connection, after Deut. ii. 25, can also mean fear of the enemy (gen. objecti). To {M', occasioned = brings as a consequence with it, cf. x. 10, xiii. 15; the synallage generis is as at xii. 25a: it is at least strange with fem. infinit. and infinitival nouns, xvi. 16, xxv.14; Ps. xxiii. 28; but NT (trembling) is such a nom. actionis, Ewald, § 238a. Regarding 33%” (for which the LXX.’ itr i Bone and LXX.’ εὐφρανθήσεται = = now), vid. at xviii. 10. He who is put into a terror by a danger with which men threaten him, so as to do from the fear of man what is wrong, and to conceal the truth, falls thereby into a snare laid by himself—it does not help him that by this means he has delivered himself from the danger, for he brands himself as a coward, and sins against God, and falls into an agony of conscience (reproach and anguish of heart) which is yet worse to bear than the evil wherewith he was threatened. It is only confidence in God that truly saves. The fear of man plunges him into yet greater suffering than that from which he would escape; confidence in God, on the other hand, lifts a man internally, and at last externally, above all his troubles.

Many seek the countenance of the ruler; Yet from Jahve cometh the judgment of men.

Line first is a variation of xix. θα, cf. 1 Kings x. 24. It lies near to interpret W'S as gen. obj.: the judgment regarding any one, 7.¢. the estimating of the man, the decision regarding him; and it is also possible, for ‘BWP, Ps. xvii. 2, may be understood of the judgment which I have, as well as of the judgment pronounced regarding me (cf. Lam. iii. 59). But the usage appears to think of the genit. after vavin always as subjective, e.g. xvi. 33, of the decision which the lot brings, Job xxxvi. 6, the right to which the poor have a claim; so that thus in the passage before us ἐς ΟΞ means the right of a man, as that which is proper or fitting to him, the judgment of a man, as that to which as appropriate he has a claim (LX X. τὸ δίκαιον ἀνδρί). Whether the genit. be rendered in the one way or the other, the meaning remains the same: it is not the ruler who finally decides the fate and determines the worth of a man, as they appear to think who with eye-service court his favour and fawn upon him.

Ver. 27 An abomination to a righteous man is a villanous man; And an abomination to the godless is he who walketh uprightly.

In all the other proverbs which begin with ΠΩΣ, e.g. xi. 20, mn’ follows as genit., here O°‘P"1¥, whose judgment is like that of God. YS is an abhorrence to them, not as a man, but just as of such a character; “WY is the direct contrast to Ἵν, The righteous sees in the villanous man, who boldly does that which is opposed to morality and to honour, an adversary of his God; on the other hand, the godless sees in the man that walketh uprightly (WI, as at Ps. xxxvil. 14) his adversary, and the condemnation of himself.

With this doubled n the Book of Proverbs, prepared by the men of Hezekiah, comes to an end. It closes, in accordance with its intention announced at the beginning, with a proverb concerning the king, and a proverb of the great moral contrasts which are found in ali circles of society up to the very throne itself.