* The Samaritan has, Lev. xi. 30, ΓΟ for pox, and the Syr. translates the latter word by NNpDN, which is used in the passage before us (cf. Geiger’s Urschrift, p. 68 f.) for ΠΟ; omakto (Targ. akmetha) appears there to mean, not a spider, but a lizard.
Vers. 29-31. Another numerical proverb with the cipher 4 -Ξ:85 1:
Three things are of stately walk, And four of stately going: 30 The lion, the hero among beasts, And that turneth back before nothing; 31 The swift-loined, also the goat; And a king with whom is the calling out of the host.
Regarding 2. with inf. following (the segolated n. actionts ΨΥ is of equal force with an inf.), vid. under xv. 2.’ The relation of the members of the sentence in 30a is like that in 25a and 26a: subj. and apposit., which there, as here, is continued in a verbal clause which appears to us as relative. It deserves to be here remarked that v9, as the name for ἃ 1 In 29a, after Norzi, 19°19, and in 29), "2 2.2, is to be written, and this is required by the little Masora to 1 Sam. xxv. 31, the great, to Ezek. xxxiii. $3, and also the Erfurt little Masora to the passage before us.
lion, occurs only here and at Job iv. 11, and in the description of the Sinai wilderness, Isa. xxx. 6; in Arab. it is layth, Aram. m2, and belongs to the Arameo-Arab. dialect of this language; the LX X. and Syr. translate it “ the young lion;” the Venet. excellently, by the epic λῆς. 722 has the article only to denote the genus, viz. of the beasts, and particularly the fourfooted beasts. What is said in 30d (cf. with the expression, Job xxxix. 22) is described in Isa. xxx. 4. The two other beasts which distinguish themselves by their stately going are in 3la only briefly named. But we are not in the condition of the readers of this Book of Proverbs, who needed only to hear the designation 0202 WM at once to know what beast was meant. Certainly Mt, as the name for a beast, is not altogether unknown in the ipost-bibl: Heb. “In the days of Rabbi Chija (the great teacher who came from Babylon to the Academy of Sepphoris), as is narrated in Bereschith rabba, sect. 65, a zarzir flew to the land of Israel, and it was brought to him with the question whether it were eatable. Go, said he, place it on the roof! Then came an Egyptian raven and lighted down beside it. See, said Chija, it is unclean, for it belongs to the genus of the ravens, which is unclean (Lev. xi. 15). From this cireumstance there arose the proverb: The raven goes to the zarzir because it belongs to his own tribe.”* Also the Jer. Rosch haschane, Halacha 3: “ It is the manner of the world that one seeks to assist his zarzir, and another his zarzir, to obtain the victory;” and Midrash Echa ν. 1, according to which it is the custom of the world, that one who has a large and a little zarzir in his house, is wont to treat the little one sparingly, so that in the case of the large one being killed, he might not need to buy anotlier. According to this, the zarzir is a pugnacious animal, which also the proverb Bereschith rabba, c. 75, confirms: two zarzir do not sleep on one board; and one makes use of his for contests like cock-fights. According to this, the my is a bird, and that of the species of the raven; after Rashi, the étourneau, the starling, which is confirmed by the Arab. curzur (vulgar Arab.
1 This ‘ like draws to like” in the form: ‘‘ not in vain goes the raven to the zarzir, it belongs just to its own tribe,” came to be often employed, Chullin 65a, Baba Kamma 92b. Plantavitius has it, Tendlau more at large, Sprichwérter, u.s.w., Nr. 577.
zarzur), the common name of starlings (cf. Syr. zarzizo, under zrz of Castelli). But for the passage before us, we cannot regard this as important, for why is the starling fully named OND 101? To this question Kimchi has already remarked that he knows no answer for it. Only, perhaps, the grave magpie (corvus pica), strutting with upraised tail, might be called succinctus lumbos, if DMD can at all be el ers of a bird. At the earliest, this might possibly be used of a cock, which the later Heb. named directly 723, because of its manly demeanour; most old translators so understand it. The LXX. translates, omitting the loins, by ἀλέκτωρ ἐμπεριπατῶν θηλείαις εὔψυχος, according to which the Syr. and Targ.: like the cock which struts about proudly among the hens;* Aquila and Theodotion: ἀλέκτωρ (ἀλεκτρυὼν) νώτου; the Quinta: ἀλέκτωρ ὀσφύος 5 Jerome: gallus succinctus lumbos. Sarsar (not sirsir, as Hitzig vocalizes) is in Arab. a name for a cock, from sarsara, to crow, an onomatopeia. But the Heb. 1, as the name of a bards signifies, as the Talmud proves on the ground of that ee not a cock, but a bird of the raven order, whether a starling, a crow, ora magpie. And if this name of a corvinus is formed from the onomatopara “7, the weaker form of that (Arab.) sarsar, then pnd, which, for Wt, requires the verbal root ΤῊ), to girdle, i is not wholly Sosa ite and how strangely would the three animals be mingled together, if between ve? and wn, the two four-footed animals, a bird were placed! If, as is to be expected, the “ Lendenumgiirtete” [the one lided about the loins = ὉΠ Wt] be a four-footed animal, then it lies near, with C. B. Michaelis and Ziegler, after Ludolf’s? example, to
1 Regarding the Targum Text, vid. Levy under NIIN and 55 The expression M07 (who is girded, and shows himself as such) is not unsuitable.
2 Ludolf gave, in his Hist. Zthiop. i. 10, and Commentarius, p. 150, only a description of the Zecora, without combining therewith >"p 7; but vid. Joh. Dietr. Winckler’s Theol. u. Philol. Abhand. i. (1755) p. 33 ff.: “A nearer explanation of what is to be understood by pnd 77, Prov. xxx. 31, along with a statement from a hitherto unpublished correspondence between the learned philologists Hiob Ludolf and Matthai Leydecker, a Reformed preacher in Batavia.” With Ludolf, Joh. Simonis also, in the Arcanum Formarum (1735), p. 687 sq., decides in favour of the zebra.
think of the zebra, the South African wild ass. But this animal lay beyond the sphere of the author’s observation, and perhaps also of his knowledge, and at the same time of that of the Israelitish readers of this Book of Proverbs; and the darkbrown cross stripes on a white ground, by which the zebra is distinguished, extend not merely to its limbs, but over the whole body, and particularly over the front of the body. It would be more tenable to think of the leopard, with its black round spots, or the tiger, with dark stripes; but the name 71 pny scarcely refers to the colour of the hair, since one has to understand it after the Aram. 370 M=Y32N Dv, 1 Kings xviil. 46, or yyon as, Job xxxviii. 3, and thus of an activity, i.e. strength and swiftness, depending on the condition of the loins. Those who, with Kimchi, think that the 73 {leopard ] is thus named, ground their view, not on this, that it has rings or stripes round its legs, but on this, that it prm ond Pt yonp2. But this beast has certainly its definite name; but a fundamental supposition entering into every attempt at an explanation is this, that oyun m1, as well as δ and wan, is the proper name of a beast, not a descriptive attribute. Therefore the opinion of Rosse, which Bochart has skilfully established in the Hierozoicon, does not recommend itself, for he only suggests, for choice, to understand the name, “the girded about the loins,” in the proper sense of straps and clasps around and on the loins (thus e.g. Gesenius, Fleischer, Hitzig), or of strength, in the sense of the Arab. habwwk, the firmlybound = compact, or samm alslab, the girded loin (thus eg. Muntinghe). Schultens connects together both references: Utrumque jungas licet. That the by-name fits the horse, particularly the war-horse, is undeniable; one would have to refer it, with Miihlau, to the slender structure, the thin flanks, which are reckoned among the requisites of a beautiful horse." But if suecinetus lumbos were a by-name of a horse, why did not the author at once say ond WrrDiD? = We shall give the preference to the opinion, according to which the expression, “ girt about the loins ” = “ with strong loins,” or “ with slender limbs,” is not the by-name, but the proper name of the animal.
1 Vid. Ahlwardt, Chalef elahmar’s Qasside (1859), and the interpretation of the description of the horse contained therein, p. 201 ff.
This may be said of the hunting-hound, lévrier (according to which the Venet., incorrectly translating nnd: λαγῳοκύων ‘pousv), which Kimchi ranks in the first place. Luther, by his translation, Hin Wind = Windhund [greyhound], of good limbs, has given the right direction to this opinion. Melanchthon, Lavater, Mercier, Geier, and others, follow him; and, among the moderns, so also do Ewald and Béttcher (also Bertheau and Stuart), which latter supposes that before 7m pnd there originally stood 253, which afterwards disappeared. But why should the greyhound not at once be called 7m pnd? We call the smaller variety of this dog the Windspiel [greyhound]; and by this name we think on a hound, without saying Windspielhund. The name ὩΣ Π wm (Symmachus excellently: περιεσφιγμένος, not περιεσφραγισμένος, τὴν ὀσφύν, 1.6. strongly bound in the limbs) is fitted at once to suggest to us this almost restless, slender animal, with its high, thin, nimble limbs. The verbal stem 1, (Arab.) zarr, signifies to press together, to knit together; the reduplicative form 7%, to bind firmly together, whence 1, firmly bound together, referred to the limbs as designating a natural property (Ewald, § 1582): of straight and easily-moveable legs.” The huntinghound (saléki or saliki, i.e. coming from Seleucia) is celebrated by the Arab. poets as much as the hunting-horse.* The name 253, though not superfluous, the author ought certainly to have avoided, because it does not sound well in the Heb. collocation of words.
There now follows tN, a goat, and that not the ram (Jerome, Luther), which is called De, but the he-goat, which bears this name, as Schultens has already recognised, from its pushing, as it is also called WAY, as paratus ad pugnam; the two names appear to be only provincially different; y’, on the contrary, is the old he-goat, as shaggy; and ἘΝ also perhaps denotes it, as Schultens supposes, with twisted, 1.6. curled hair (tortipilus).
1 Thus reads Schleusner, Opusc. Crit. p. 818, and refers it to the horse: nam solebant equos figuris quibusdam notare et quasi sigillare.
In Arab. tays denotes the he-goat as well as the roebuck and the gazelle, and that at full growth. The LXX. (the Syr. and Targ., which is to be emended after the Syr.) is certainly right, for it understands the leading goat: καὶ τράγος ἡγούμενος αἰπολίου. The text, however, has not UM, but wn ix, ἢ tpayos (Aquila, Theodotion, Quinta, andthe Venet.). Bottcher is astonished that Hitzig did not take hold of this ix, and conjectures M*n-iNn, which should mean a “ gazelle-goat” (Miihlau: dorcas mas). But it is too bold to introduce here i8F (xin), which is only twice named in the O. T., and wn-wn for 737 INF is not the Heb. style; and besides, the setting aside of 1x has a harsh asyndeton for its consequence, which bears evidence to the appearance that isn and wn are two different animals, And is the Ἰδὲ then so objectionable? More wonderful still must Song ii. 9 appear to us. If the author enumerated the four of stately going on his fingers, he would certainly have said ὃ), By 1% he communicates to the hearer, setting before him another figure, how there in the Song Sulamith’s fancy passed from one object to another.
To the lion, the king of the animal world, the king ἸῸΝ pip corresponds. This nyp>x Hitzig regards as mutilated from nbs (which was both written and pronounced as ΡΟΝ by the Jews, so as to conceal the true sound of the name of God),— which is untenable, for this reason, that this religious conclusion [“ A king with whom God is”] accords badly with the secular character of this proverb. Geiger (Urschrift, p. 62 ff.) translates: “ and King Alkimos corresponding to it (the lustful and daring goat) ”»—he makes the harmless proverb into a ludibrium from the time of the Maccabeo-Syrian war. The LXX., which the Syr. and Targ. follow, translates καὶ βασιλεὺς δημηγορῶν ἐν ἔθνει; it appears to have changed wy op>x into wy 5x op (standing with his people and haranguing them), like the Quinta: καὶ Bac. ἀναστὰς (ὃς ἀνέστη) ἐν τῷ λαῷ αὐτοῦ. Ziegler and Béttcher also, reading iY and ON without any transposition, get ἸῸΝ DIp-ON 701, which the former translates: “a king with the presence of his people;” the latter, “a king with the setting up of his people,”’—not accordant with the thought, for the king should be brought forward as na? 2 Ὁ. For the same reason, Kimchi’s explanation is not suitable: a king with whom is no resistance, i.e. against whom no one can rank himself (thus e.g. also Immanuel); or more specially, but not better: who has no successor of his race (according to which the Venet. adiddextos ξὺν ἑαυτῷ). Rather this explanation commends itself: a king with whom (i.e. in war with whom) is no resistance. Thus Jerome and Luther: against whom no one dare place himself; thus Rashi, Aben Ezra, Ralbag (wy ΠΡ prev), Abron b. Josef (Ὁ = dvrictacis), Arama, and others; *thus also Schultens, Fleischer (adversus quem nemo consistere audet), Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, Stuart, and others. But this connection of > with the infin. is not Heb.; and if the Chokma, xii. 28, has coined the expression MD-PN for the idea of “immortality,” then certainly it does not express the idea of resistlessness by so bold a quasi compositum. But this boldness is also there mitigated, for "7 is supplied after ON, which is not here practicable with ὩΣ, which is not a subst. like NY, Pocock in the Spec. historia Arabum, and Castellus in the Ler. Heptaglotton (not Castellio, as the word is printed by Zéckler), have recognised in oypox the Arab. dlkawm; Schultens gives the LX X. the honour of this recognition, for he regards their translation as a paraphrase of ὁ δῆμος per’ αὐτοῦ. Bertheau thinks that it ought to be in Arab. kawmuhu, but wy pipox = dlkawhu ma’ahu is perfectly correct, dlkawhu is the summons or the Heerbann = arriere-ban; in North Africa they speak in their language in the same sense of the Gums. This explanation of mposx, from the Arab. Dachselt (rex cum satellitio suo), Diedrichs in his Arab.-Syr. Spicilegium (1777), Umbreit, Gesenius, and Vaihinger, have recognised, and Miihlau has anew confirmed it at length. Hitzig, on the contrary, remarks that if Agur wrote on Arab. territory, we could be contented with the Arab. appellative, but not with the article, which in words like ἜΣ ΡΗς and B28 is no longer of force as an art., but is an integ. component part of the word. We think that it is with pipbs exactly as with other words descriptive of lordship, and the many similar that have passed over into the Spanish
1 Wetzstein’s Ausgewdhlte Inschriften, p. 355: ‘The word kawm signifies people, not in the sense of populus, but in the sense of the Heb. Ὁ (Job xxiv. 17) = mukawim abrajul, he who breaks with or against any one.” Incorrect in Gesenius-Dietrich’s Heb. Wérterbuch.
language; the word is taken over along with the article, without requiring the Heb. listener to take the art. as such, although he certainly felt it better than we do, when we say “ das Alkoran” [the Alcoran], “das Alcohol,” and the like. Blau also, in his Gesch. der Arab. Substantiv- Determ.,' regards it as certain that Agur borrowed this nyp>x from the idiom of the Arabians, among whom he lived, and heard it constantly spoken. By this explanation we first reach a correspondence between what is announced in lines first and second and line sixth. <A king as such is certainly not “ comely in going;” he can sit upon his throne, and especially as δημηγορῶν will he sit (Acts xii. 21) and not stand. But the majesty of his going shows itself when he marches at the head of those who have risen up at his summons to war. Then he is for the army what the wn [hegoat] is for the flock. The ᾿ξ, preferred to ἡ, draws close together the v*n and the king (cf. e.g. Isa. xiv. 9).
Vers. 32, 33. Another proverb, the last of Agur’s “ Words” which exhorts to thoughtful, discreet demeanour, here follows the proverb of self-conscious, grave deportment:
If thou art foolish in that thou exaltest thyself, Or in devising,—put thy hand to thy mouth! $8 For the pressure on milk bringeth forth butter, And pressure on the nose bringeth forth blood, And pressure on sensibility bringeth forth altercation.
Lowenstein translates ver. 32:
Art thou despicable, it is by boasting;
Art thou prudent, then hold thy hand on thy mouth. But if pet denotes reflection and deliberation, then 533, as its opposite, denotes unreflecting, foolish conduct. Then 8¥2n73 [by boasting] is not to be regarded as a consequent (thus it happens by lifting thyself up; or: it is connected with boasting); by this construction also, 9723708 must be accented with Dechi, not with Tarcha. Otherwise Euchel:
Hast thou become offensive through pride, Or seems it so to thee,—lay thy hand to thy mouth.
The thought is appropriate,’ but ΣΡ for FD) j is more than improbable; “$39 thus absolutely taken i in an ethical connection, is certainly NEE to 522, as 505, Jer. x. 8, to Ὁ 53, The prevail. ing mode of explanation is tadogtad by Fleischer: si. stulta arrogantia elatus fueris et si quid durius (in alios) mente conceperis, manum ort impone; ie, if thou arrogantly, and with offensive words, wilt strive with others, then keep thyself back, and say not whe thou hast in thy mind. But while mand and nin denote intrigues, xiv. 17, as well as plans and considera tions, Dt has never by itself alone the sense of meditari mala;
at Ps, xxxvii. 12, also with 5 of the object at which the evil devices aim. Then for O81... ON (Arab. dn... wén) there is the supposition of a correlative relation, as 4.0. 1 Kings xx. 18, Eccles. xi. 8, by which at the same tiie Nita? is obviously ought of as a contrast to ΤΌΣ), This contrast excludes? for mot not only the sense of mala moliri (thus e.g. also Miihlau), but also the sense of the Arab. zamm, superbire (Schultens). Hitzig has the right determination of the relation of the members of the sentence and the ideas: if thou art irrational in ebullition of temper and in thought—thy hand to thy mouth!
But 82n7 has neither here nor elsewhere the meaning of Vayny (to be out of oneself with anger); it signifies everywhere to elevate or exalt oneself, i.e. rightly or wrongly to make much of oneself. There are cases where a man, who raises himself above others, appears as a fool, and indeed acts foolishly; but there are also other cases, when the despised has a reason and an object for vindicating his superiority, his repute, his just claim: when, as we say, he places himself in his right position, and assumes importance; the poet here recommends, to the one as well as to the other, silence. The rule that silence is gold has its exceptions, but here also it is held valid as a rule. Luther and others interpret the perfecta as looking back: “ hast thou be-
1 Yet the Talmud, Nidda 27a, derives another moral rule from this proverb, for it interprets prot in the sense of pot = npn, to tie up, to bridle, to shut up, but nba3 oN in the sense of ‘if thou hast made thyself despicable,” as Lowenstein has done.
2The Arab. signification, to become proud, is a niiance of the primary signification, to hold erect—viz. the head,—as when the rider draws up the head of a camel by means of the halter (Arab. zamam).
Such would be the superscription if the interpunction of the text as it lies before us were correct. But it is not possibly right. For, notwithstanding the assurance of Ewald, ὃ 2770, ape) bed, nevertheless, as it would be here used, remains an impossibility. Certainly under circumstances an indeterminate apposition can follow a proper name. That on coins we read Ὁ) 1Π2 ANN or ADYp ἢ) is nothing strange; in this case we also use the words “ Nero, emperor,” and that we altogether omit the article shows that the case is singular: the apposition wavers between the force of a generic and of a proper name. A similar case is the naming of the proper name with the general specification of the class to which this or that one bearing the name belongs in lists of persons, as e.g. 1 Kings iv. 2-6, or in such expressions as, ¢.g., ‘“‘ Damascus, a town,” or “ Tel Hum, a castle,” and the like; here we have the indefinite article, because the apposition is a simple declaration of the class! But would the expression, “ The poem of Oscar, a king,” be proper as the title of a book? Proportionally more so than “ Oscar, king;” but also that form of indeterminate apposition is contrary to the usus log., especially with a king with whom the apposition is not a generic name, but a name of honour. We assume that “ Lemuel” is a symbolical name, like “Jareb” in “ King Jareb,” Hos. v. 13, x. 6; so we would expect the phrase to be Sid ybn(m) rather than yoo Syd. The phrase “ Lemuel, king,” here in the title of this section of the book, sounds like a double name, after the manner of 72 ἼΩΝ in the book of Jeremiah. In the Greek version also the phrase “εμουέλου βασιλέως (Venet.) is not used as syntactically correct without having joined to the βασιλέως a dependent genitive such as τῶν ApaBov, while none of the old translators, except Jerome, take the words 75 5xwb together in the sense of Lamuelis regis. Thus Ὁ 7p are to be taken together, with Hitzig, Bertheau, Zockler, Miihlau, and Dachsel, against Ewald and Kamphausen; xo, whether it be a name of a tribe or a country, or of both
1 Thus it is also with the examples of indeterminate gentilicia, which Riehm makes valid for sbn Seip (for he translates ὑοῦ symbolically, which, however, syntactically makes no difference): ‘‘As analogous to ‘Lemuel, a king,’ one may adduce ‘ Jeroboam, son of Nebat, an Ephrathite,’ 1 Kings xi. 26, instead of the usual form ‘the Ephrathite;’” and "2253, Ps. vii. 1, for ‘319° 12; on the contrary, jA3, 1 Kings iy. 5, does not belong to the subject, but is the pred.
at the same time, is the region ruled over by Lemuel, and since this proper name throws back the determination which it has in itself on $19, the phrase is to be translated: “ Words of Lemuel the king of Massa” (vid. under xxx. 1). If Aquila renders this proper name by “εμμοῦν, Symmachus by ᾿Ιαμουήλ, Theodotion by Ρεβουήλ, the same arbitrariness prevails with reference to the initial and terminal sound of the word, as in the case of the words ’ApuBaxovp, Βεελξεβούλ, Βελίαρ. The name by? sounds like the name of Simeon’s first-born, ον, Gen. xlvi. 10, written in Num, xxvi. 12 and 1 Chron, iv. 24 as DNV 5 Sxi* also appears, 1 Chron. iv. 35, as a Simeonite name, which Hitzig adduces in favour of his view that xem was a North Arab. Simeonite colony. The interchange of the names Sy» and 5x13 is intelligible if it is supposed that Ssam (from AD) =
2.) designates the sworn (sworn to) of God, and 5yy9 (from ὉΣ Mishnic =C82)! the expressed (addressed) of God; here the reference of 1° and 13 to verbal stems is at least possible, but a verb 729 is found only in the Arab., and with significations inus. But there are two other derivations of the name: (1) The verb (Arab.) wadla signifies to hasten (with the infin. of the onomatop. verbs waniyal, like rahkyal, walking, because motion, especially that which is tumultuous, proceeds with a noise), whence mawnil, the place to which one flees, retreat. Hence ον > or rive, which is in this ease to be assumed as the ground-form, might be formed from Ssip Oe, God is a refuge, with the rejection of the x. This is the opinion of Fleischer, which Miihlau adopts and has established, p. 38-41; for he shows that the initial 8 is not only often rejected where it is without the support of a full vocal, e.g. ὌΠ) = UTX, lalah = ilalah (Deus), but that this aphaeresis not seldom also occurs where the initial has a full vocal, e.g. Ὕν» = TIBOR, lahmaru = dllahmaru (ruber), lahsd = Gl-lahsé (the name of atown); ef. also Blau in Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr. xxv. 580. But this view is thus acceptable and tenable; a derivation which spares us by a like certainty the supposition of such an abbreviation established only by the late Palestinian ον, Adfapos, might well desire the preference. (2) Fleischer himself suggests another derivation: “The signi-
1 In the Midrash Koheleth to i. 1, the name Lemuel (as a name of Solomon) is explained: he who has spoken to God in his heart.
fication of the name is Deo consecratus, in}, poetic for >, as also in ver. 4 it is to be vocalized Syinnd after the Masora.””. The form ND? is certainly not less favourable to that first derivation than to this second; the ἢ is in both cases an obscuration of the original. But that “ Lemuel” may be explained in this second way is shown by “ Lael,” Num. iii. 24 (Olshausen, § 277d).’ It is a beautiful sign for King Lemuel, and a verification of his name, that it is he himself by whom we receive the admonition with which his mother in her care counselled him when he attained to independent government. ὌΝ connects itself with 25, after we have connected μ with 3p; it is accus. of the manner to 15" = 3901D"; cf, 37, vii. 21, with ὙΠΓΙΡΌΣ, xxxi. 12: wherewith (with which words) she earnestly and impressively admonished him. The Syr. translates: words of Muel, as if 5 were that of the author. “Others as inconsistently: words to Lemuel—they are words which he himself ought to carry in his mouth as received from his mother” (Fleischer).
The name “ Massa,” if it here means effatwn, would be proportionally more appropriate for these “* Words” of Lemuel than for the “ Words” of Agur, for the maternal counsels form an inwardly connected compact whole. They begin with a question which maternal love puts to itself with regard to the beloved son whom she would advise:
Ver. 2 What, my son? and what the son of my womb? And what, O son of my vows?! The thrice repeated m9 is completed by M¥YA (cf. Kohler under Mal. 11. 15), and that so that the question is put for the purpose of exciting attention: Consider well, my son, what thou wilt do as ruler, and listen attentively to my counsel (Fleischer). But the passionate repetition of MD would be only affectation if thus interpreted; the underlying thought must be of a subjective nature: what shall I say, 9278 (vid. under Isa. xxxviii. 15), what advise thee todo? The question, which is at the same time a call, is like a deep sigh from the heart of the mother concerned for the welfare of her son, who would say to him what is beneficial, and say it in words which strike and remain fixed. He
1 Simonis has also compared Athiopic proper names, such as Zakrestios, Zaiasus. Zamikaél, Zamarian.
is indeed her dear son, the son whom she carries in her heart, the son for whom with vows of thanksgiving she prayed to God; and as he was given her by God, so to His care she commits him. ‘The name “Lemuel ” is, as we interpret it, like the anagram of the fulfilment of the vows of his mother. 3 bears the Aramaic shade in the Arameo-Arab. colouring of these proverbs from Massa; *‘}2 is common in the Aram., and particularly in the Talmudic, but it can scarcely be adduced in support of "3. 7% belongs to the 24, ΠΡΌ, with n or y not following; vid. the Masora to Ex. xxxii. 1, and its correction by Norzi at Deut. xxix. 23. We do not write 72°72; np, with Makkeph and with Metheg, exclude one another.
Ver. 3. The first admonition is a warning against effeminating sensuality:
The punctuation nine? sees in this form a syncopated inf. Hiph. = ninnd (vid. at xxiv. 17), according to which we are to translate: viasgue tuas ad perdendos reges (ne divige), by which, as Fleischer formulates the twofold possibility, it may either be said: direct not thy effort to this result, to destroy neighbouring kings,—viz. by wars of invasion (properly, to wipe them away from the table of existence, as the Arabs say), —or: do not that by which kings are overthrown; we., with special reference to Lemuel, act not so that thou thyself must thereby be brought toruin. But the warning against vengeful, rapacious, and covetous propensity to war (thus Jerome, so the Venet. after Kimchi: ἀπομάττειν βασιλέας, C. B. Michaelis, and earlier, Gesenius) does not stand well as parallel with the warning against giving his bodily and mental strength to women, ie. expending it on them. But another explanation: direct not thy ways to the destruction of kings, we. toward that which destroys kings (Elster); or, as Luther translates: go not in the way wherein kings destroy themselves,—puts into the words a sense which the author cannot have had in view; for the individualizing expression would then be generalized in the most ambiguous way. Thus y2Sp will be a name for women, parallel to ps2, So far the translation of the Targum: p70 N29, jiliabus (nine??) regum, lies under a right supposition. But the designation is not thus general, Schultens explains catapultis requm after Ezek. xxvi. 9; but, inasmuch as he takes this as a figure of those who lay siege to the hearts of men, he translates: expugnatricibus regum, for he regards n\n as the plur. of 77, a particip. noun, which he translates by deletor. The connecting form of the fem. plur. of this 41 might certainly be nin (cf. td, from md), but poop min? ought to be changed into ‘) 1D?; for one will not appeal to anomalies, such as '0?, xvi. 4; “5, Isa. xxiv. 2; nd, Lam. i. 19; or ἢ) ΠΠ, 1 Kings xiv. 24, to save the Pathach of mnnd, which, as we saw, proceeds from an altogether different understanding of the word. But if "nd is to be changed into ‘9, then one must go further, since for ΠΠ not an active but a conditional meaning is to be assumed, and we must write niniod, in favour of which Fleischer as well as Gesenius decides: δέ ne committe consilia factaque tua tis que reges perdunt, regum pestibus. Ewald also favours the change ninbe, for he renders 71ND as a denom. of 4, marrow: those who enfeeble kings, in which Kamphausen follows him. Miihlau goes further; he gives the privative signification, to enfeeble, to the Piel Nh) = makhakha (cf. Herzog’s Real- Worterb. xiv. 712), which is much more probable, and proposes nirmn?: tis gue vires enervant regum. But we can appropriately, with Néldeke, adhere to ninv), deletricibus (perditrici bus), for by this change the parallelism is satisfied; and that nm) may be used, with immediate reference to men, of entire and total destruction, is sufficiently established by such passages as Gen. vi. 7, Judg. xxi. 17, if any proof is at all needed for it. Regarding the LXX. and those misled by it, who, by robin and p25», 4a, think on the Aram. PDN, βουλαί, vid. Miihlau, p. 53." But the Syr. has an idea worthy of the discourse, who translates epulis regum without our needing, with Miihlau, to charge him with dreaming of on? in mnpd. Perhaps that is true; but perhaps by mnnd he thought of ning? (from 79, the particip. adj. of MM): do not direct thy ways to rich food (morsels), such as kings love and can have. By this reading, courtesans] and Béttcher’s Streichlerinnen [caressers, viz. of kings] are there rejected, as they deserve to be.
31, would mediate the transition to ver. 4; and that the mother refers to the immorality, the unseemliness, and the dangers of a large harem, only in one brief word (3a), cannot seem strange, much rather it may be regarded as a sign of delicacy. But so much the more badly does T2713 accord with τόπον, Certainly one goes to a banquet, for one finds leisure for it; but of one who himself is a king, it is not said that he should not direct his ways to a king’s dainties. But if ninis? refers to the whole conduct of the king, the warning is, that he should not regulate his conduct in dependence on the love and the government of women. But whoever will place himself amid the revelry of lust, is wont to intoxicate himself with ardent spirits; and he who is thus intoxicated, is in danger of giving reins to the beast within him. Hence there now follows a warning against drunkenness, not unmediated by the reading Mind?:
Ver. 4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, Not for kings to drink wine, Not for rulers to ask for intoxicating drink; 5 Lest he drink, and forget what is prescribed, And pervert the right of all the children of want.
The usual translation of 4a is: non decet reges... (as e.g. also Miihlau); but in this Sx is not rightly rendered, which indeed is at times only an ov, spoken with close interest, but yet first of all, especially in such paranetic connection as here, it is a dissuasive pj. But now ning przdnd xd or τή: pradnd xd, after 2 Chron. xxvi. 18, Mic. iii. 1, signifies: it is not the part of kings, it does not become them to drink, which may also be turned into a dissuasive form: let it not be the part of kings to drink, let them not have any business therewith, as if it belonged to their calling; according to which Fleischer renders: Absit a regibus, Lemuel, absit a regibus potare vinum. The clearer expression Syind, instead of Ssand, is, after Béttcher, occasioned by this, that the name is here in the vocative; perhaps rather by this, that the meaning of the name: consecrated to God, belonging to God, must be placed in contrast to the descending to low, sensual lust. Both times we write D°22192 with the orthophonic Dagesh* in the Ὁ following 5, and without the recompensative Dagesh, the want of which is in a certain measure covered by the Metheg (vid. Norzi). Regarding the inf. constr. iN (cf. MP, xvi. 16), vid. Gesen. ὃ 15, Anm: 25 and regarding the sequence of accents here necessary, pra21b by pring “(not Marcha, Dechi, Athnach, for Dechi would be here contrary to rule), vid. Thorath Emeth, p. 22 ὃ 6, p. 48 § 7. In 46 nothing is to be gained from the Chethib 1. There is not a substantive 18, desire, the constr. of which would here have to be read, not is (Umbreit, Gesenius), but 18, after the form \? (Maurer); and why did the author not write 13¥ nism? But the particle 18 does not here also fall in with the connection; for if 72¥ i8 connect itself with }» (Hitzig, Ewald, and others), then it would drag disagreeably, and we would have here a spiritless classification of things unadvisable for kings. Béttcher therefore sees in this 1% the remains of the obliterated 8i2D; a corrector must then have transformed the ») which remained into 1%. But before one ventures on such conjectures, the Keri ‘8 [where?] must be tried. Is it the abbreviated |S (Herzog’s Real-Worterbuch, xiv. 712)? Certainly not, because 13¥ Νὴ perio would mean: and the princes, or rulers (vid. regarding on at viii. 15), have no mead, which is inconsistent. But δὲ does not abbreviate itself seus 8, but into δ, Not 'S, but °8, is in Heb., as well as in Ethiop., the word with which negative adjectives such as 2 δὲ, not innocent, Job xxii. 30, and in later Heb. also, negative sentences, such as IWAN 'N: it is not possible, are formed.’ Therefore Miihlau vocalizes *8, and thinks that the author used this word for 5x, so as not to repeat this word for the third time. But how is that possible? 13% °% signifies either: not mead, or: there is not mead; and both afford, for the passage before us, no meaning. Is, then, the Keri ‘8 truly so unsuitable? Indeed, to explain: how came intoxicating drink to rulers! is inadmissible, since "ἐξ always means only ubi (6.0. Gen. iv. 9); not, like the Ethiop. aité, also guomodo. But the 1 The author of the Comm. p'9p} mipy to the Ayn Mx, ὁ. 6, Geiger and others would read oN, because §~ is abbreviated from })x. But why not from jx, 1 Sam. xxi. 9? The traditional expression is δ); and Elias
Levita in the Tishbi, as also Baer in the Siddur Abodath Jisrael, are right in defending it against that innovation.
question εἰδὲ temetum, as a question of desire, fits the connection, whether the sentence means: non decet principibus dicere (Ahron Ὁ. Josef supplies mos’) ubi temetum, or: absit a principibus querere ubi temetum (Fleischer), which, from our view of 4a, we prefer. ‘There is in reality nothing to be supplied; but as 4a says that the drinking of wine ought not to characterize kings, so 4b, that ‘‘ Where is mead?” (ae. this eager inquiry after mead) ought not to characterize rulers.’ Why not? ver. 5 says. That the prince, being a slave to drink, may not forget the PPM, zc. that which has been made and hai become ph, thus that aida is lawfully right, and may not alter the righteous cause of the miserable, who cry against their oppressors, z.e. may not handle falsely the facts of the case, and give judgment contrary to them. [7 73¥ (Aquila, Theodotion, Quinta, ἀλλοιοῦν κρίσιν) is elsewhere equivalent to DED NT (My). 29723 are those who are, as it were, born to oppression and suffering. This mode of expression is a Semitism (Fleischer), but it here heightens the i impression of the Arab. colouring. In 59 (Venet. ὡντενοῦν) it is indicated that, not merely with reference to individual poor men, but in general to the whole class of the poorer people, suffering humanity, sympathy and a regard for truth on the part of a prince given to sensuality are easily thrown aside. Wine is better suited for those who are in a condition to be timeously helped over which, is a refreshment to them. Ver. 6 Give strong drink to him that is perishing, And wine to those whose soul is in bitter woe; 7 Let him drink and forget his poverty, And let him think of his misery no more.
The preparation of a potion for malefactors who were condemned to death was, on the ground of these words of the proverb, cared for by noble women in Jerusalem (np pws psvinvav’), Sanhedrin 43a; Jesus rejected it, because He wished, without becoming insensible to His sorrow, to pass away from the earthly life freely and in full consciousness, Mark xv. 23.
1 The translation of Jerome, guia nullum secretum est ubi regnat ebrietas (as if the words were a) NT τ), corresponds to the proverb: Ὁ)5) TID NY’ }, when the wine goes in the secret comes out; or, which is the same thing: if one adds j» (= 70), Ὁ (= 70) comes out.
The transition from the plur. to the sing. of the subject is in ver. 7 less violent than in ver. 5, since in ver. 6 singular and plur. already interchange. We write 120337 with the countertone Metheg and Mercha. 28 designates, as at Job xxix. 13, xxxi. 19, one who goes to meet destruction: it combines the present signification interiens, the fut. signif. interiturus, and the perf. perditus (hopelessly lost). 52 "02 (those whose minds are filled with sorrow) is also supported from the Book of Job, iii. 20, cf. xxi. 25, the language and thought and mode of writing of which notably rests on the Proverbs of Agur and Lemuel (vid. Miihlau, pp. 64-66). The Venet. τοῖς πικροῖς (not ψυχροῖς) τὴν ψυχήν. (poverty) is not, however, found there, but only in the Book of Proverbs, in which this word-stem is more at home than elsewhere. Wine rejoices the heart of man, Ps. civ. 15, and at the same time raises it for the time above oppression and want, and out of anxious sorrow, wherefore it is soonest granted to them, and in sympathizing love ought to be presented to them by whom this its beneficent influence is to be wished for. ‘The ruined man forgets his poverty, the deeply perplexed his burden of sorrow; the king, on the contrary, is in danger from this cause of forgetting what the law required at his hands, viz. in relation to those who need help, to whom especially his duty as a ruler refers. Ver. 8 Open thy mouth for the dumb, For the right of all the children of leaving; 9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, And do right to the poor and needy.
He is called dumb who suffers the infirmity of dumbness, as ὋΝ and NDB, Job xxix. 15, is he who suffers the infirmity of blindness or lameness, not here figuratively; at the same time, he who, on account of his youth, or on account of his ignorance, or from fear, cannot speak before the tribunal for himself (Fleischer). With? the dat. commodi (LXX. after Lagarde, μογιλάλῳ; Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, ἀλάλῳ; the Venet. after Gebhardt, βωβῷ) °&, of the object aimed at, interchanges, as ¢.g. 1 Kings xix. 3, 2 Kings vii. 7, pvip-oN, for the preservation of their life, or for the sake of their life, for it is seldom that it introduces the object so purely as here. And that an infin, such as pion should stand as a subst. occurs proportionally seldomer in Heb. (Isa. iv. 4; Ps. xxii. 7; cf. with Π of the artic., Num. iv. 12; Ps. Ixvi. 9) than it does in Arab. ion 2 in the same way as 29723, 5b, belongs to the Arab. complexion of this proverb, but without its being necessary to refer to the Arab. in order to fix the meaning of these two words. Hitzig explains after khalf, to come after, which further means “ to have the disadvantage,” in which Zockler follows him; but this verb in Arab. does not mean ὑστερεῖν (ὑστερεῖσθαι), we must explain sons of him that remains behind,” 1.6. such as come not forward, but remain behind (an) others. Miihlau goes further, and explains, with Schultens and Vaihinger: those destitute of defence, after (Arab.) khalafahu he is ranked next to him, and has become his representative—a use of the word foreign to the Heb. Still less is the rendering of Gesenius justified, “ children of inheritance” = children left behind, after khallafa, to leave behind; and Luther, “ for the cause of all who are left behind,’ by the phrase (Arab.) khallfany ’an "awnth, he has placed me behind his help, denied it to me, for the Kal of the verb cannot mean to abandon, to leave, And that sydn 2 means the opposers of the truth, or of the poor, or the litigious person, the quarrelsome, is perfectly inadmissible, since the Kal bn cannot be equivalent to (Arab.) khilaf, the inf. of the 3d conj., and besides, the gen. after } always denotes those in whose favour, not those against whom it is passed; the latter is also valid against Ralbag’s “sons of change,” i.e. who say things different from what they think; and Ahron b. Josef’s “sons of changing,” viz. the truth into lies. We must abide by the meaning of the Heb. hen, “ to follow after, to change places, pass away.” Accordingly, Fleischer understands by Ai, the going away, the dying, viz. of parents, and translates: eorum qui parentibus orbati sunt. In another way Rashi reaches the same sense: orphans deprived of their helper. But the connection 95n 23 requires that we make those who are intended themselves the subject of mibn. Rightly Ewald, Bertheau, Kamphausen, compare Isa. ii. 18 (and Ps. xe. 5f., this with questionable right), and understand by the sons of disappearance those whose inherited lot, whose proper fate, is to disappear, to die, to perish (Symmachus: πάντων υἱῶν ἀποιχομένων; Jerome: omnium filiorum qui per- transeunt). It is not men in general as children of frailty that are meant (Kimchi, Meiri, Immanuel, Euchel, and others), after which the Venet. τῶν υἱῶν τοῦ μεταβάλλειν (i.e. those who must exchange this life for another), but such as are on the brink of the abyss. ΡΝ in PTS"MSY is not equivalent to P7832, but is the accus. of the object, as at Zech. viii. 16, decide justice, ἐ.9. so that justice is the result of thy judicial act; cf. Knobel on Deut. 1.16. ἢ is imper., do right to the miserable and the poor; cf. Ps. liv. 3 with Jer. xxii. 16, v.28. That is a king of a right sort, who directs his high function as a judge, so as to be an advocate [procurator| for the helpless of his
The admonitions of a faithful mother are followed by words in praise of a virtuous wife; the poet praises them through all the predicamenta, i.e. all the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. ‘The artificialness of the order, says Hitzig, proves that the section belongs to a proportionally late age. But if, as he himself allows, even a Davidic psalm, viz. Ps. ix.-x., is constructed acrostically, then from this, that there the acrostic design is not so purely carried out as it is here in this ode, no substantial proof can be drawn for the more recent origin of the latter. Yet we do not deny that it belongs to an earlier time than the earliest of the era of Hezekiah. If Hitzig carries it back to the times subsequent to Alexander on account of the scriptio plena, without distinctive accents, vers. 17, 25, it is, on the other hand, to be remarked that it has the scripiio plena in common with the “utterance from Massa,” which he places forward in the times of Hezekiah, without being influenced to such clear vision by writings such as jon, xxx. 22, 52x, xxxi. 6, pn, xxxi. 4. Besides, the plene written Hy, ver. 25, is incorrect, and ΡΞ, ver. 17, which has its parallel in “ἣν, Ps. lxxxiv. 6, is in its form altogether dependent on the Munach, which was added some thousand years after.
In the LXX. this section forms the concluding section of the Book of Proverbs. But it varies from the Heb. text in that the Β (στόμα) goes before the ν (ἰσχύν). The very same sequence of letters is found in the Heb. text of Ps. xxxiv. and
Stier has interpreted allegorically the matron here commended. He understands thereby the Holy Ghost in His regenerating and sanctifying influence, as the Midrash does the Téra; Ambrosius, Augustine, and others, the Church; Immanuel, the soul in covenant with God, thirsting after the truth. As if it were not an invaluable part of Biblical moral instruction which is here presented to us! Such ἃ woman’s mirror is nowhere else found. The housewife is depicted here as she ought to be; the poet shows how she governs and increases the wealth of the house, and thereby also advances the position of her husband in the common estimation, and he refers all these, her virtues and her prudence, to the fear of God as their root (Von Hofmann’s Schriftbeweis, ii. 2. 404 f.). One of the most beautiful expositions of this section is that of Luis de Leon, La perfecta casada (Salamanca, 1582), which has been revived in a very attractive way by Wilkens.’
A wife, such as she ought to be, is a rare treasure, a good excelling all earthly possession:
She stands far above pearls in worth. In the connection ΡΠ ΤΟΝ and the like, the idea of bodily vigour is spiritualized to that of capacity, ability, and is generalized; in virtus the corresponding transition from manliness, and in the originally Romanic “ Bravheit,’ valour to ability, is completed; we have translated as at xii. 4, but also Luther, “a virtuous woman,” is suitable, since Tugend (virtue) has with Tiichtigkeit [ability] the same root-word, and according to our linguistic [German] usage designates the property of moral goodness and propriety, while for those of former times, when they spoke of the tugend (tugent) of a woman, the word combined with it the idea of fine manners (cf. jf, xi. 16) and culture (cf. nip 52, xiii. 15). The question X¥D ὍΘ, guis inveniat, which,
1 C. A. Wilkens’ Fray Luis de Leon. A biography from the History of the Spanish Inquisition and Church of the 16th cent. (1866), pp. 322-327.
Eccles. vii. 24, proceeds from the supposition of the impossibility of finding, conveys here only the idea of the difficulty of finding. In ancient Jerusalem, when one was married, they were wont to ask: ΝΕ IN ΝΥ, ze. has he found? thus as is said at Prov. xviii. 22, or at Eccles. vii. 26. A virtuous woman [braves Weib] is not found by every one, she is found by comparatively few. In 10d there is given to the thought which underlies the question a synonymous expression. Ewald, Elster, and Zéckler incorrectly render the 1 by “although” or “and yet.” Fleischer rightly: the second clause, if not in form yet in sense, runs parallel to the first. 13° designates the price for which such a woman is sold, and thus is purchasable, not without reference to this, that in the Orient a wife is obtained by means of 17, 139, synon. 102, for which a wife of the right kind is gained, is PIM, placed further, i.e. is more difficult to be obtained, than pearls (vid. regarding “ pearls” at iii. 15), ἐ.6. than the price for such precious things. The poet thereby means to say that such a wife is a more precious possession than all earthly things which are precious, and that he who finds such an one has to speak of his rare fortune. The reason for this is now given: Ver.11 3 The heart of her husband doth trust her, And he shall not fail of gain.
If we interpret bby after Eccles. ix. 8, as subject, then we miss 15; it will thus be object., and the husband subj. to allay NP: nec lucro carebit, as e.g. Fleischer translates it, with the remark that 22¥' denotes properly the spoil which one takes from an enemy, but then also, like the Arab. danymat, can mean profit and gain of all kinds (cf. Rédiger in Gesenius’ Thes.). Thus also in our “ kriegen” =to come into possession, the reference to war disappears. Hitzig understands by Sbv’, the continual prosperity of the man on account of his fortunate possession of such a wife; but in that case the poet should have said δου) noo; for obvi is gain, not the feeling that is therewith connected. There is here meant the gain, profit, which the housewife is the means of bringing in (cf. Ps. Ixviii. 13). The heart of her husband (ADy3) can be at rest, it can rest on her whom it loves —he goes after his calling, perhaps a calling which, though weighty and honourable, brings in little or nothing; but the wife keeps the family possessions scrupulously together, and increases them by her laborious and prudent management, so that there is not wanting to him gain, which he properly did not acquire, but which the confidence he is justified in reposing in his wife alone brings tohim. She is to him a perpetual spring of nothing but good. Ver. 12 5 She doeth good to him, and not evil, All the days of her life; or, as Luther translates: ** Sie thut jm liebs und kein leids.” [She does him good, and no harm.] She is far from ever doing him evil, she does him only good all her life long; her love is not dependent on freaks, it rests on deep moral grounds, and hence derives its power and purity, which remain ever the same. 02 signifies to accomplish, to perform. To the not assimilated form snd, ef. wD", 10. The poet now describes how she disposes of things: Ver. 13 53 She careth for wool and flax, And worketh these with her hands’ The verb ΟἹ proceeds, as the Arab. shows,’ from the primary meaning terere; but to translate with reference thereto: tractat lanam et linum (LXX., Schultens, Dathe, Rosenmiiller, Fleischer), is inadmissible. The Heb. v7 does not mean the external working at or manufacturing of a thing; but it means, even when it refers to this, the intention of the mind purposely directed thereto. Thus wool and flax come into view as the material of work which she cares to bring in; and &ym signifies the work itself, following the creation of the need of work. Hitzig translates the second line: she works at the business of her hands. Certainly 3 after ΠῸΨ may denote the sphere of activity, Ex. xxxi. 4; 1 Kings v. 30, etc.; but if 720 had here the weakened signification business, +payya,—which it gains in the same way as we say business, affair, of any object of care,—the scarcely established meaning presents itself, that she shows herself active in that which she has made the business of her hands. How much more beautiful, on the contrary, is the thought: she is active with her hands’ pleasure! /®N is, as Schultens rightly explains, inclinatio flexa et propensa in aliquid, and pulchre manibus diligentissimis attribuitur lubentia cum ob- 1 The inquirer is there called (Arab.) daras, as libros terens.
lectatione et per oblectationem sese animans. ney, without obj. accus., signifies often: to accomplish, e.g. Ps. xxii. 32; here it stands, in a sense, complete in itself, and without object. accus., as when it means “ handeln” [agere], xiii. 16, and particularly to act in the service of God = to offer sacrifice, Ex. x. 25; it means here, and at Ruth ii. 19, Hag. ii. 4, to be active, as at Isa. xix. 15, to be effective; YM) is equivalent to wym MONI or ARINPD wy) (cf. under x. 4). And pleasure and love for the work, ‘5, can be attributed to the hands with the same right as at Ps. lxxviii. 72, discretion. The disposition which animates a man, especially his inner relation to the work devolving upon him, communicates itself to his hands, which, according as he has joy or aversion in regard to his work, will be nimble or clumsy. The Syr. translates: “and her hands are active after the pleasure of her heart;” but ypna is not equivalent to A¥YSN2; also ΒΞ, in the sense of con amore (Bottcher), is not used. The following proverb praises the extent of her housewifely transactions: Ver. 14 7 She is like the ships of the merchant—
Bringeth her food from afar. She is (LXX. ἐγένετο) like merchant ships (M283, indeterminate, and thus to be read kddnijoth), 1.6. she has the art of such ships as sail away and bring wares from a distance, are equipped, sent out, and managed by an enterprising spirit; so the prudent, calculating look of the brave wife, directed towards the care and the advancement of her house, goes out beyond the nearest circle; she descries also distant opportunities of advantageous purchase and profitable exchange, and brings in from a distance what is necessary for the supply of her house, or, mediately, what yields this supply (P72, Cod. Jaman. pnw, cf. under Isa. x. 6), for she finds that source of gain she has espied. With this diligence in her duties she is not a long sleeper, who is not awakened till the sun is up; but
Ver. 15 ἡ She riseth up while it is yet night,
And the fixed portion to her maidens. The fut. consec. express, if not a logical sequence of connection, yet a close inner binding together of the separate features of the character here described. Early, ere the morning dawns, such a housewife rises up, because she places care for her house above her own comfort; or rather, because this care is to her a satisfaction and a joy. Since now the poet means without doubt to say that she is up before the other inmates of the house, especially before the children, though not before the maids: we have not, in JAM), to think that the inmates of the house, all in the morning night-watch, stand round about her, and that each receives from her a portion for the approaching day; but that she herself, early, whilst yet the most are asleep, gives out or prepares the necessary portions of food for the day (cf. 1m, Isa. lili. 9). Regarding 470, food, from ἢ. (to tear in pieces, viz. with the teeth), and regarding ph, a portion decreed, vid. at xxx. 8. It is true that ph also means the appointed labour (pensum), and thus the day’s work (O1 123); but the parallelism brings it nearer to explain after xxx, 8, as is done by Gesenius and Hitzig after Ex. v. 14. This industry,—a pattern for the whole house,—this punctuality in the management of household matters, secures to her success in the extension of her household wealth: Ver. 16 ~ She seeketh a field and getteth possession of it; Of the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
The field which she considereth, towards which her wish and her effort are directed, is perhaps not one beyond those which she already possesses, but one which has hitherto been wanting to her family; for the poet has, after ver. 23, an inhabitant of a town in his eye,—a woman whose husband is not a landlord, but has a business in the city. The perf. ΠΟΣῚ precedes and gives circumstantiality to the chief factum expressed by 30pm, Regarding 02%, vid. xxi. 27. “n> is the general expression for purchasing, as 10), 240, for selling. Thus the Aram. and Arab. 78, while, (Arab.) akhadh w'ta, Turk. alisch werisch (from elmek, to take, and wirmek, to give—viz. sdtiin, in the way of selling;; Lat. venum), post.-bibl. js 8D or 1D0D3 ΠΡΌ, denotes giving and taking = business in general” (Fleischer). In 165 the Chethid is, with Ewald and Bertheau, to be read Yb3, and, with Hitzig, to be made dependent on mnpm, as parallel obj.: “of her hands’ fruit (she gaineth) a planting of vines.” Bat a planting of vines would be-expressed by 093 Yoo (Mic. i. 6); and the Keri ΠΡῸΣ is more acceptable. The perf., as a fundamental verbal form, is here the expression of the abstract present: she plants a vineyard, for she purchases vines from the profit of her industry (Isa. vii. 23, cf. v. 2). The poet has this augmented household wealth in his eye, for he continues:
Strencth is as the girdle which she wraps around her body (Ps. xcili. 1). We write 12 937; both words have Munach, and the 3 of nya is aspirated. Thus girded with strength, out of this fulness of strength she makes firm or steels her arms (cf. Ps. Ixxxix. 22). The produce of the field and vineyard extend far beyond the necessity of her house; thus a great portion is brought to sale, and the gain thence arising stimulates the industry and the diligence of the unwearied woman.
Ver. 18 Ὁ She perceiveth that her gain is good; And her light goeth not out at night. The perf. and fut. are related to each other as antecedent and consequent, so that 18a can also be rendered as an hypothetical antecedent. She comes to fimd (taste) how profitable her industry is by the experience resulting from the sale of its product: the corn, the grapes, and the wine are found to be good, and thus her gain (cf. ili. 14) is better, this opened new source of nourishment productive.
This spurs on her active industry to redoubled effort, and at times, when she is not fully occupied by the oversight of her fields and vineyard, she has another employment over which her light goes not out till far in the night. "2 is, as at Lam. ii. 19, a needless Kert for the poetic 23 (Isa. xvi. 3). What other business it is to which she gives attention till in the night, is mentioned in the next verse.
Ver. 19 + She putteth her hand to the rock [Spinnrocken]; And her fingers lay hold on.the spindle. She applies herself to the work of spinning, and performs it with skill. The phrase 3 Ἵ" Πρὸ (nD, Job xxviii. 9) signifies to take up an object of work, and 72n, with obj. accus. (cf. Amos i. 5), the handling of the instrument of work necessary thereto. DB2 denotes the hands when the subject is skilful, successful work; we accordingly say °22 Y's, not OM 5)"; cf. vers. 13 and 16,
Ps, Ixxviii. 72. What 322 means is shown by the Arab. falakat, which, as distinguished from mighzal, t.e. fuseau (Lat. fusus), is explained by bout arrondi et conique au bas du fuseau, thus: the whorl, z.e. the ring or knob fastened on the spindle below, which gives it its necessary weight and regulates its movement, Lat. verticellus, post-bibl. 1?.2 (which Bartenora glosses by the Ital. fusajuolo) or M33, e.g. Kelim ix. 6, ns paw va mys, a spindle which holds the whorl hidden (vid. Aruch under w3, ill.). But the word then also signifies per synecdochen partis pro toto, the spindle, ze. the cylindrical wood on which the thread winds itself when spinning (cf. 2 Sam. iii. 29, where it means the staff on which the infirm leans); Homer gives to Helen and the goddesses golden spindles (χρυσηλά- κατοι). Accordingly it is not probable that Ὑ 5 also denotes the whorl, as Kimchi explains the word: “ "\w»9 is that which one calls by the name verteil, viz. that which one fixes on the spindle (155) above to regulate the spinning (mwn),” according to which the Venet. renders 11¥*3 by σφόνδυλος, whorl, and 3 by ἄτρακτος, spindle. The old interpreters have not recog. nised that -w> denotes a thing belonging to the spinning apparatus; the LX X., Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Syr., and Jerome see therein an ethical idea (from WW, to be capable, able); but Luther, not misled thereby, translates with unusual excellence: She stretches her hand to the rock, And her fingers grasp the spindle.
He has in this no predecessors, except only the Targumists, whose 81W333 (vid. Levy) appears also to denote the spinningrock. The Syriac and Talmudic wd, which is compared by Gesenius-Dietrich, is another word, and denotes, not the rock, but the spindle. Immanuel also, who explains 755 as the Sryn, ὦ.6. the spindle, understands (as perhaps also Parchon) by v3 the rock. And why should not the rock (wocken = distaff), 1.6. the stock to which the tuft of flax, hemp, or wool is fixed for the purpose of being spun, Lat. colus, not be named it, from "wa, to be upright as a stick, upright in height, or perhaps more correctly as 1'¥/30, 1.6. as that which prepares or makes fit the flax for spinning? Also in P3'¥, Jer. xxix. 26, there are united the meanings of the close and the confining dungeon, and Ποὺ = ji signifies’ the place which yields rest. The spinning-wheel is a German invention of the 16th century, but the rock standing on the ground, or held also in the hands, the spindle and the whorl, are more ancient.” With the spindle yon stands in fit relation, for it is twirled between the fingers, as Catullus says of Fate:
That which impels the housewife to this labour is not selfishness, not a narrow-hearted limitation of her care to the circle of what is her own, but love, which reaches out far beyond this circle:
Ver. 20 5 She holdeth out her hand to the unfortunate, And stretcheth forth her hands to the needy.
With 52, 194, is connected the idea of artistic skilfulness; with 783, here that of offering for counsel (vid. at Isa. ii. 6); with sympathy and readiness to help, she presents herself to those who are oppressed by the misfortunes of life as if for an alliance, as if saying: place confidence in me, I shall do whatever I can—there thou hast my hand! Hitzig erroneously thinks of the open hand with a gift lying in it: this ought to be named, for 43 in itself is nothing else than the half-opened
1 Otherwise, but improbably, Schultens: colus a w5 = katr kathr, necti in orbem, circumnecti in globum. In 22; whence =p, he rightly finds the primary meaning of circumvolutio sive gyratio. γε
2 A view of the ancient art of spinning is afforded by the figures of the 12th Dynasty (according to Lepsius, 2380-2167 B.c.) in the burial chamber of Beni Hassan (270 kilometres above Bulak, on the right bank of the Nile). M. J. Henry, in his work L’Egypte Pharaonique (Paris 1846), Bd. 2, Ῥ. 431, mentions that there are figures there which represent ‘‘ toutes les opérations de la fabrication des tissus depuis le filage jusqu au tissage.” Then he continues: Lex fuseaux dont se servent les fileuses sont exactement semblables aux notres, et on voit méme ces fileuses imprimer le mouvement de rotation a ces fuseauz, en en froissant le bout inferieur entre leur main et leur cuisse.
3 In the “marriage of Peleus and Thetis,” Catullus describes the work of the Fates: ““ Their hands are ceaselessly active at their never-ending work; while the left holds the rock, surrounded with a soft fleece, the right assiduously draws the thread and forms it with raised fingers; then it swiftly turns the spindle, with the thumb stretched down, and swings it away in whirling circles.” Then follows the refrain of the song of the Fates:
hand. Also in 200 we are not to think of alms. Here Hitzig rightly: she stretches out to him both of her hands, that he might grasp them, both of them, or whichever he may. She does not throw to him merely a gift from a distance, but above all she gives to him to experience her warm sympathy (cf. Ezek. xvi. 49). Here, as at 19a, nndy is punctuated (with Dagesh) as Piel. The punctuation supposes that the author both times not unintentionally made use of the intensive form. This one verse (20) is complete in itself as a description of character; and the author has done well in choosing such strong expressions, for, without this sympathy with misery and poverty, she, so good and trustworthy and industrious, might indeed be pleasing to her husband, but not to God. One could almost wish that greater expansion had been given to this one feature in the picture. But the poet goes on to describe her fruitful activity in the nearest sphere of her calling: Ver. 21 5 She is not afraid of the snow for her house; For her whole house is clothed in scarlet.
A fall of snow in the rainy season of winter is not rare in Palestine, the Hauran, and neighbouring countries, and is sometimes accompanied with freezing cold.’ She sees approaching the cold time of the year without any fear for her house, even though the season bring intense cold; for her whole house, i.e. the whole of the members of her family, are 0'2¥ vino, The connection is accusatival (Venet. ἐνδεδυμένος ἐρυθράλ), as at 2 Sam. xv. 32; Ezek. ix. 2, 3. ‘2%, from 72%, to shine, glance clear, or high red, and is with or without nybin the name of the colour of the Kermes worm, crimson or scarlet, perhaps to be distinguished from ΠΣ, the red-purple shell colour; and noon, the blue. '2% are clothing or material coloured with such οὐ (bright red) (vid. at Isa. i. 18). The explanation of the word by dibapha is inadmissible, because the doubled colouring, wherever it is mentioned, always refers to the purple, particularly that of Tyre (dibapha Tyria), not to the scarlet.’ But why does the poet name scarlet-coloured clothing? On
1 Vid. regarding a fall of snow in Jerusalem, the journal Saat auf Hoffnung Jahrg. 3, Heft 3; and in the Hauran Comm. to Job xxxviii. 22. Vid. Bliimner’s Die gewerbliche Thitigkeit der Volker des klassischen Alterthums (1869), p. 21 f.
account of the contrast to the white snow, says Hitzig, he clothes the family in crimson. But this contrast would be a meaningless freak. Rather it is to be supposed that there is ascribed to the red material a power of retaining the heat, as there is to the white that of keeping off the heat; but evidences for this are wanting. Therefore Rosenmiiller, Vaihinger, and Béttcher approve of the translation duplicibus (Jerome, Luther) [= with double clothing], because they read, with the LXX., pw, But, with right, the Syr., Targ. abide by xm, scarlet. The scarlet clothing is of wool, which as such preserves warmth, and, as high-coloured, appears at the same time dignified (2 Sam. i. 24). From the protecting, and at the same time ornamental clothing of the family, the poet proceeds to speak of the bed-places, and of the attire of the housewife: Ver. 22 Ὁ She prepareth for herself pillows; Linen and purple is her raiment.
the linen [Byssus], according to a prevailing probability, was not a fine cotton cloth, but linen cloth. Luther translates vv, here and elsewhere, by weisse Seide [white silk] (σηρικόν, ie. from the land of the Σἢρες, Rev. xviii. 12); but the silk is first mentioned by Ezekiel under the name of ΕἾ; and the ancients call the country where silk-stuff (bombycina) was woven, uniformly Assyria. 2228 (Aram. M278, derived by Benfey, with great improbability, from the rare Sanscrit word rdgavant, red-coloured; much rather from 52) = O?), as stuff of variegated colour) is red purple; the most valuable purple garments were brought from Tyre and Sidon.
Now, first, the description turns back to the husband, of the woman who is commended, mentioned in the introduction:
Ver. 28 5 Well known in the gates is her husband, Where he sitteth among the elders of the land. Such a wife is, according to xii. 4, mpya nyoy,—she advances the estimation and the respect in which her husband is held. He has, in the gates where the affairs of the city are deliberated upon, a well-known, reputable name; for there he sits, along with the elders of the land, who are chosen into the council of the city as the chief place of the land, and has a weighty voice among them. The phrase wavers between YT) (LX X. περίβλεπτος γίνεται; Venet. ἔλνωσται) and y72. The old Venetian edd. have in this place (like the Cod. Jaman.), and at Ps. ix. 17, ¥12; on the contrary, Ps. Ixxvi. 2, Eccles. vi. 10, »͵Ὸ, and that is correct; for the Masora, at this place and at Ps. Ixxvi. 2 (in the Biblia rabb.), is disfigured. The description, following the order of the letters, now directs attention to the profitable labour of the housewife: Ver. 24 Ὁ She prepareth body-linen and selleth it, And girdles doth she give to the Phoenicians.
It is a question whether "70 signifies σινδών, cloth from Sindhu, the land of India (vid. at Isa. iii. 23); the Arab. sadn (sadl), to cause to hang down, to descend (for the parpose of covering or veiling), offers an appropriate verbal root. In the Talmud, δ is the sleeping linen, the curtain, the embroidered cloth, but particularly a light smock-frock, as summer costume, which was worn on the bare body (cf. Mark xiv. 51 f.). Kimchi explains the word by night-shirt; the Edictum Diocle- tiant, xviii. 16, names σινδόνες κοιταρίαι, as the Papyrus Louvre, ὀθόνια ἐγκοιμήτρια; and the connection in the Edict shows that linen attire (ἐκ A/vov) is meant, although—as with vw, so also with }4>—with the ancients and the moderns, sometimes linen and sometimes cotton is spoken of without any distinction. Athicus speaks of costly girdles, Cosmogr. 84, as fabricated at Jerusalem: baltea regalia... ex Hierosolyma allata; Jerusalem and Scythopolis were in later times the chief places in Palestine for the art of weaving. In Galilee also, where excellent flax grew, the art of weaving was carried on; and the ὀθόναι, which, according to Clemens Alex. Padag. ii. 10, p. 239, were exported ἐκ γῆς “Εββραίων, are at least in their material certainly synon. with ovvdoves. Regarding 13, syn. 129, opp. np, syn. XY] = 3?) vid. at 16a. There is no reason με interpret ‘3/32 ‘here, with the obliteration of the ethnographical meaning, in the general sense of 10D, tradet, merchant; for purple, 226, is a Phoenician manufacture, and thus, as an article of exchange, can be transferred to the possession of the industrious wife. The description is now more inward:
Ver. 25 y Strength and honour is her clothing; Thus she laugheth at the future day.
She is clothed with ty, strength, ¢.e. power over the changes of temporal circumstances, which easily shatter and bring to ruin a household resting on less solid foundations; clothed with 175, glory, 1.6. elevation above that which is low, little, common, a state in which they remain who propose to themselves no high aim after which they strive with all their might: in other words, her raiment is just pride, true dignity, with which she looks confidently into the future, and is armed against all sorrow and care. The connection of ideas, 177 1) (defectively written, on the contrary, at Ps. Ixxxiv. 6, Masora, and only there written plene, and with Munach), instead of the frequent 15 17m, occurs only here. The expression 250 is like Job xxxix. As aa Hitzig rightly compares Job xxiv. 14 to 25a. jim Df, distinguished from N48, and incorrectly interpreted (Rashi) » the “day of death, is, as at Isa. xxx. 8, the future, here that which one at a later period may enter upon.
Ver. 26 5 She openeth her mouth with wisdom, And amiable instruction is on her tongue.
The J of ΠΌΞΙΞ is, as also at Ps. xlix. 5, Ixxviii. 2, that of means: when she speaks, then it is wisdom pressing itself from her heart outward, by means of which she breaks the silence of her mouth. With Y,in the expression 260, elsewhere NMA interchanges: under the tongue, Ps, x. 7, one has that which is ready to be spoken out, and on the tongue, Ps. xv. 3, that which is in the act of being spoken out. ΘΠ is a genitive connection after the manner of térath NOX, Mal. ii. 6. The gen. is not, as at Lev. vi. 2, in térath Nya, the gen. of the object (thus e.g. Fleischer’s institutio ad heeitweltctonn); but the gen. of property, but not so that ton denotes grace (Symmachus, νόμος ἐπίχαρις; Theodotion, νόμος χάριτος), because for this meaning there is no example except Isa. xl. 6; and since 30m in the O. T. is the very same as in the N.T., love, which is the fulfilling of the law, Hos. vi. 6, cf. 1 Kings xx. 31, it is supposed that the poet, since he writes 74 nn, and not j2 Mn, means to designate by 70M this property without which her love for her husband, her industry, her high sentiment, would be no virtues, viz. unselfish, sympathizing, gentle love. Instruction which bears on itself the stamp of such amiability, and is also gracious, i.e. awakening love, because going forth from love (according to which Luther, translating holdselige Lere = pleasing instructions, thus understands it)—such instruction she carries, as house-mother (i. 8), in her mouth. Accordingly the LXX. translate (vid. Lagarde regarding the mistakes of this text before us) θεσμοὶ ἐλεημοσύνης, and Jerome ler clementia. 0M is related to NIN as grace to love; it denotes love showing itself in kindness and gracefulness, particularly condescending love, proceeding from a compassionate sympathy with the sufferings and wants of men. Such graceful instruction she communicates son ndyovi, ie. which is wholly love, which goes forth in love, to the Gesetz = statute.
now to this and now to that member of her household, for nothing that goes on in her house escapes her observation.
Ver. 27 y She looketh well to the ways of her house, And eateth not the bread of idleness.
Although there exists an inner relation between 27a and ver. 26, yet 27a is scarcely to be thought of (Hitzig) as appos. to the suffix in naive, Participles with or without determination occur in descriptions frequently as predicates of the subject standing in the discourse of the same force as abstr. present declarations, e.g. Isa, xl. 22 f., Ps. civ. 18 f. 75i¥ is connected with the accus. of the object of the intended warning, like xv. 3, and is compared according to the form with 79h, vii. 11. navn signifies elsewhere things necessary for a journey, Job vi. 19, and in the plur. magnificus it denotes show (pompa), Hab. ii. 6: but originally the walk, conduct, Nah. ii. 6; and here in the plur. walks=comings and goings, but not these separately, but in general, the modi procedendi (LXX. &a- τριβαι). The Chethib has miobn, probably an error in writing, but possibly also the plur. of 7237, thus found in the post.-bibl. Heb. (after the form Nipt¥), custom, viz. appointed traditional law, but also like the Aram. 8227 (emph. Nn307), usage, manner, common practice. Hitzig estimates this Chethib, understood Talmudically, as removing the section into a late period; but this Talmudical signification is not at all appropriate (Hitzig translates, with an incorrect rendering of ΠΡῚΝ, “for she sees after the ordering of the house”), and besides the Aram. ΕΑΝ e.g. Targ. Prov. xvi. 9, in the first line, signifies only the walk or the manner and way of going, and this gives with the Keri essentially the same signification. Luther well: Sie schawet wie es in jrem Hause zugeht [=she looks how it goes in her house]. Her eyes are turned everywhere; she is at one time here, at another there, to look after all with her own eyes; she does not suffer the day’s work, according to the instructions given, to be left undone, while she folds her own hands on her bosom; but she works, keeping an oversight on all sides, and does not eat the bread of idleness (Mbyy = Ady, xix. 15), but bread well deserved, for ef τις οὐ θέλει ἐργάζεσθαι, μηδὲ ἐσθιέτω, 2 Thess. iii. 10.
Ver. 28 p Her sons rise up and bless her, Her husband (riseth up) and praiseth her.
The Piel \Y8 in such a connection is denom. of Wx (WR). Her children rise up (o%p, like eg. Jer. xxvi. 17, but here, perhaps, with the associated idea of reverential honour) and bless her, that she has on her part brought the house and them to such prosperity, such a position of respect, and to a state where love (7Dn) reigns, and her husband rises up and sings her praise. Ver. 29 5 ‘* Many are the daughters who have done bravely, But thou hast surpassed them all together.”
We have already often remarked, last time under xxix. 6, that 37, not indeed in its sing., but in its plur. 0°37 and ΓΞ, can precede, after the manner of a numeral, as attribute; but this syntactical licence, xxviii. 12, by no means appears, and needs to be assumed as little here as at viii. 26, although there is no reason that can be adduced against it. >n ΠῸΨ signifies here not the gaining of riches (the LX X., Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther, Gesenius, Bottcher, and others), which here, where the encomium comes to its height, would give to it a mercenary mammon-worship note—it indeed has this signification only when connected with 5 of the person: Sibi opes acquirere, Deut. vi. 17; Ezek. xxviii. 4—but: bravery, energy, and, as the reference to 9M ΠΣ demands, moral activity, capacity for activity, in accordance with one’s calling, ποιεῖν ἀρετήν, by which the Venet. translates it. ΓΞ is, as in the primary passages, Gen. xxx. 13, Song vi. 9, a more delicate, finer name of women than 02: many daughters there have always been who have unfolded ability, but thou my spouse hast raised thyself above them all, i.e. thou art excellent and incomparable. Instead of my, there is to be written, after Chajug, Aben Ezra (Zachoth 7a), and Jekuthiel under Gen. xvi. 11, ἌΣ the Spanish Nakdanim thus distinguish the forms N83, thou hast found, and NX¥D, she has found. ΠΣ, for PD, Gen. xlii. 36. What now follows is not a continuation of the husband’s words of praise (Ewald, Elster, Lowenstein), but an epiphonema auctoris
(Schultens); the poet confirms the praise of the husband by referring it to the general ground of its reason: Ver. 30 w Grace is deceit; and beauty, vanity-— A wife that feareth Jahve, she shall be praised. Grace is deceit, because he who estimates the works of a wife merely by the loveliness of her external appearance, is deceived by it; and beauty is vanity, vanitas, because it is nothing that remains, nothing that is real, but is subject to the law of all material things—transitoriness. The true value of a wife is measured only by that which is enduring, according to the moral background of its external appearance; according to the piety which makes itself manifest when the beauty of bodily form has faded away, in a beauty which is attractive.’ MN (with Makkeph following)’ is here the connective form of 78) (fem. of 81). The Hithpa. epann is here manifestly (xxvii. 2) not reflexive, but representative of the passive (cf. xii. 8, and the frequently occurring Den, laudatus = laudandus), nowhere occurring except in the passage before us. In itself the fut. may also mean: she will be praised =is worthy of praise, but the jussive rendering (Luther: Let her be praised) is recommended by the verse which follows: Ver. 31 ἢ Give to her of the fruit of her hands; And let her works praise her in the gates! The fruit of her hands is the good which, by her conduct, she has brought to maturity,—the blessing which she has secured for others, but, according to the promise (Isa. iii. 10), has also secured for her own enjoyment. The first line proceeds on the idea that, on account of this blessing, she herself shall rejoice. AIA (with Gaja, after Metheg-Setzung, § 37) is not equivalent to give to her honour because of...; for in that case, instead of the ambiguous }®, another preposition—such e.g. as oY —would have been used; and so ¥, of itself, cannot be equi-
1 Vid. the application of ver. 30 in Taanith 26b: ““ Young man,” say the maidens, ‘‘ lift up thine eyes and behold that which thou choosest for thyself! Direct thine eyes not to beauty (%}9), direct thine eyes to the family (ΒΟ); pleasantness is a deception, etc.”
2 The writing ~Mxy is that of Ben Asher, nx that of Ben Naphtali; Norzi, from a misunderstanding, claims “sy (with Gaja) as Ben Asher’s manner of writing.
valent to 27} (sing the praise of), as Ziegler would read, after Judg. xi. 40. It must stand with 29, or instead of "BD an accus. obj. is to be thought of, as at Ps. Ixviii. 35, Deut. xxxii. 3, which the necessity of the case brings with it,—the giving, as a return in the echo of the song of praise. Immanuel is right in explaining md-3n by son nd Span or nam ton any wy, cf. Ps. xxviii. 4. The 9, as is not otherwise to be expected, after ὉΠ is partitive: give to her something of the fruit of her hands, i.e. recompense it to her, render it thankfully, by which not exclusively a requital in the form of honourable recognition, but yet this specially, is to be thought of. Her best praise is her works themselves. In the gates, i.e. in the place where the representatives of the people come together, and where the people are assembled, her works praise her; and the poet desires that this may be right worthily done, full of certainty that she merits it, and that they honour themselves who seek to praise the works of such a woman, which carry in themselves their own commendation.
In the LXX. there are not afew proverbs which are not found in the Heb. text, or, as we may express it, are peculiar to the Egyptian Text Recension, as distinguished from the Palestinean. The number is not so great as they appear to be on a superficial examination; for many of these apparently independent proverbs are duplicate translations. In many places there follows the Greek translation of the Heb. proverbs another translation, e.g. at i. 14, 27, ii. 2, ili. 15, iv. 10, vi. 255, x. 5, xi. 16, xiv. 22, xv. 6, xvi. 26, xxiii. 31, xxix. 7b, 25, xxxi. 29a. These duplicate translations are found sometimes at different places, e.g. xvii. 205 is duplicate to xvii. 16d; xix. 15 is duplicate to xvill. 8; xxii. 9cd = xix. 6), i. 195; xxix. 17 is duplicate to xxviii. 17cd; or, according to the enumeration of the verses as it lies before us, not within the compass of one verse to which they belong: xxii. 8, 9 is a duplicate transla-
Keeping out of view all this only apparent independence, we place together the independent proverbs contained in the LXX., and, along with them, we present a translation of them into Heb. Such a translation has already been partly attempted by Ewald, Hitzig, and Lagarde; perhaps we have been here and there more fortunate in our rendering. It is certainly doubtful whether the translator found all these proverbs existing in Heb. Many of them appear to be originally Greek. But the rendering of them into Hebrew is by no means useless. It is of essential importance in forming a judgment regarding the original language.”
1 One must suppose that here translations of other Greeks, which were placed alongside of the LXX. in Origen’s Hexapla, were taken up into the LXX. But this is not confirmed: these duplicates were component parts of the LXX., which Origen and the Syriac translators found already existing.
There are a few grains of wheat, and, on the other hand, much chaff, in these proverbs that are peculiar to the LXX. They are not, in the most remote way, fit to supply the place of the many proverbs of our Heb. text which are wanting in the LXX. One must also here be cautious in examining them. Thus, ¢.g., xvii. 19 stands as a proverb of only one line; the second forms a part of ver. 16. As true defects, we have noticed the following proverbs and parts of proverbs: 1. 16, vii. 250, viii. 32, 33, xi. 30, 4, 108, xviii. 8, 23, 24, xix. 1, 2, 15, xxi. 5, xxii. 6, xxiii. 23, xxv. 20a. All these proverbs and parts of proverbs of the Heb. text are wanting in the LX X.
It is difficult to solve the mystery of this Alexandrine translation, and to keep separate from each other the Text Recension which the translator had before him, the transformations and corrections which, of his own authority, he made on the corruptions which the text of the translation, as it came from the first translator and the later revisers of it, has suffered in the course of time. They appear in Egypt to have been as arbitrary as incompetent in handling the sacred Scriptures. The separating from each other of the proverbs of Agur and Lemuel, xxx.-xxxi. 9, has its side-piece in the separation of Jeremiah’s proemiums of the prophecies concerning the people, Jer. XXv.
HE Song is the most obscure book of the Old Testament. m| Whatever principle of interpretation one may adopt, there always remains a number of inexplicable passages, and just such as, if we understood them, would help to solve the mystery. And yet the interpretation of a book presupposes from the beginning that the interpreter has mastered the idea of the whole. It has thus become an ungrateful task; for however successful the interpreter may be in the separate parts, yet he will be thanked for his work only when the conception as a whole which he has decided upon is approved of.
It is a love-poem. But why such a minne-song in the canon? This question gave rise in the first century, in the Jewish schools, to doubts as to the canonicity of the book. Yet they firmly maintained it; for they presupposed that it was a spiritual and not a secular love-poem. They interpreted it allegorically. The Targum paraphrases it as a picture of the history of Israel from the Exodus to the coming of the Messiah. The bride is the congregation of Israel; and her breasts, to quote one example, are interpreted of the Messiah in His lowliness and the Messiah in His glory. But “ Solomon” is an anthropomorphic representation of Jahve Himself. And all the instances of the occurrence of the name, with one exception, are therefore regarded as an indirect allegorical designation of the God of peace (vid. Norzi under i. 1). And because of its apparently erotic, but in truth mysterious contents, it was a Jewish saying, as Origen and Jerome mention, that the Song should not be studied by any one till he was thirty years of age (nisi quis @tatem sacerdotalis ministerii, id est, tricesimum annum impleverit). Because, according to the traditional Targ. interpretation, it begins with the departure out of Egypt, it forms a part of the liturgy for the eighth day of the Passover. The five Megilloths are arranged in the calendar according to their liturgical use."
In the church this synagogal allegorizing received a new turn. They saw represented in the Song the mutual love of Christ and His church, and it thus became a mine of sacred mysticism in which men have dug to the present day. Thus Origen explains it sn twelve volumes. Bernhard of Clairvaux died (1153) after he had delivered eighty-six sermons on it, and had only reached the end of the second chapter;? and his disciple Gilbert Porretanus carried forward the interpretation in forty-eight sermons only to v. 10, when he died. Perluigi de Palestrina gained by his twenty-nine motettoes on the Song (1584) the honoured name of Principe della Musica. In modern times this allegorico-mystical interpretation is represented in the department of exegesis (Hengst.), sermon (F, W. Krummacher), and poetry (Gustav Jahn), as well as of music (Neukomm’s duet: Er und sie), and even of painting (Ludw. von Maydell).
If the Song is to be understood allegorically, then Shulamith is the personification of the congregation of Israel, and mediately of the church. All other interpretations fall below this. Hug (1813) understands by the “ beloved” the kingdom of the ten tribes longing after a reunion with the house of David; and Heinr. Aug. Hahn (1852), the Japhetic heathendom. Ludw. Noack (1869) has even changed and modified the readings of the Heb. text, that he might find therein the ballads of a Tirhika romance, i. a series of pictures of the events occurring between Samaria and her Aethiopian lover Tirhika, of the years (B.c.) 702, 691, and 690. These are the aberrations of individuals. Only one other interpretation recommends itself. Solomon’s charisma and aim was the Chokma. The Peshito places over the Song the superscription xnp2nt moan. [5 Shulamith, then, the personification of wisdom, like Dante’s Beatrice? Rosenmiiller (1830) is the most recent representative of this view; we ought then to have in Dante’s Convito the key to the allegorical interpretation. He there sings sweet songs of love of his mistress Philosophy. But there is nothing in the description here to show that Shulamith is Wisdom. The one expression, “Thou shalt teach me” (viii. 2), warns us against attempting to put’ Wisdom in the place of the church, as a reversal of the facts of the case.
1The Song was read on the 8th day of the Passover; Ruth, on the second Shabuoth [Pentecost]; Lamentations, on the 9th Ab; Ecclesiastes, on the 3d Succoth [Tabernacles]; Esther, between the 11th and 16th Adar [feast of Purim].
2 Vid. Fernbacher’s Die Reden des. h. Bernhard iiber das Hohelied, prefaced by Delitzsch, Leipzig 1862.