INTRODUCTION

The Book of Proverbs bears the external title mish|leey ceeper , which it derives from the words with which it commences. It is one of the three books which are distinguished from the other twenty-one by a peculiar system of accentuation, the best exposition of which that has yet been given is that by S. Baer, (Note: Cf. Outlines of Hebrew Accentuation, Prose and Poetical, by Rev. A. B. Davidson, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, Edinburgh, 1861, based on Baer's Torath Emeth, Rödelheim 1872.) as set forth in my larger Psalmen-commentar. (Note: Vol. ii., ed. of 1860, pp. 477-511.)

The memorial word for these three books, viz., Job, Mishle (Proverbs), and Tehillim (Psalms), is 'mt, formed from the first letter of the first word of each book, or, following the Talmudic and Masoretic arrangement of the books, t'm.

Having in view the superscription sh|lomoh mish|leey , with which the book commences, the ancients regarded it as wholly the composition of Solomon. The circumstance that it contains only verses, while according to 1 Kings 5:12 (4:32) Solomon spake proverbs, R. Samuel bar-Nachmani explains by remarking that each separate verse may be divided into two or three allegories or apothegms (e.g., Prov 25:12), not to mention other more arbitrary modes of reconciling the discrepancy. (Note: Pesikta, ed. Buber (1868), 34b, 35a. Instead of 800, the Masora reckons 915 verses in the Book of Proverbs.)

The opinion also of R. Jonathan, that Solomon first composed the Canticles, then the Proverbs, and last of all Ecclesiastes, inasmuch as the first corresponds (Note: Schir-ha-Schirim Rabba, c. i.f. 4a.) with the spring-time of youth, the second with the wisdom of manhood, and the third with the disappointment of old age, is founded on the supposition of the unity of the book and of its Solomonic authorship.

At the present day also there are some, such as Stier, who regard the Book of Proverbs from first to last as the work of Solomon, just as Klauss (1832) and Randegger (1841) have ventured to affirm that all the Psalms without exception were composed by David. But since historical criticism has been applied to Biblical subjects, that blind submission to mistaken tradition appears as scarcely worthy of being mentioned. The Book of Proverbs presents itself as composed of various parts, different from each other in character and in the period to which they belong. Under the hands of the critical analysis it resolves itself into a mixed market of the most manifold intellectual productions of proverbial poetry, belonging to at least three different epochs. 1. The external plan of the Book of Proverbs, and its own testimony as to its origin.-The internal superscription of the book, which recommends it, after the manner of later Oriental books, on account of its importance and the general utility of its contents, extends from v. 1 to v. 6. Among the moderns this has been acknowledged by Löwenstein and Maurer; for v. 7, which Ewald, Bertheau, and Keil have added to it, forms a new commencement to the beginning of the book itself. The book is described as "The Proverbs of Solomon," and then there is annexed the statement of its object. That object, as summarily set forth in v. 2, is practical, and that in a twofold way: partly moral, and partly intellectual. The former is described in vv. 3-5. It present moral edification, moral sentiments for acceptance, not merely to help the unwise to attain to wisdom, but also to assist the wise.

The latter object is set forth in v. 6. It seeks by its contents to strengthen and discipline the mind to the understanding of thoughtful discourses generally. In other words, it seeks to gain the moral ends which proverbial poetry aims at, and at the same time to make familiar with it, so that the reader, in these proverbs of Solomon, or by means of them as of a key, learns to understand such like apothegms in general. Thus interpreted, the title of the book does not say that the book contains proverbs of other wise men besides those of Solomon; if it did so, it would contradict itself, It is possible that the book contains proverbs other than those of Solomon, possible that the author of the title of the book added such to it himself, but the title presents to view only the Proverbs of Solomon. If Prov 1:7 begins the book, then after reading the title we cannot think otherwise than that here begin the Solomonic proverbs.

If we read farther, the contents and the form of the discourses which follow do not contradict this opinion; for both are worthy of Solomon. So much the more astonished are we, therefore, when at Prov 10:1 we meet with a new superscription. sh|lomoh mish|leey , from which point on to 22:16 there is a long succession of proverbs of quite a different tone and form-short maxims, Mashals proper-while in the preceding section of the book we find fewer proverbs than monitory discourses.

What now must be our opinion when we look back from this second superscription to the part 1:7-9, which immediately follows the title of the book? Are 1:7-9, in the sense of the book, not the "Proverbs of Solomon"?

From the title of the book, which declares them to be so, we must judge that they are.

Or are they "Proverbs of Solomon"? In this case the new superscription (Prov 10:1), "The Proverbs of Solomon," appears altogether incomprehensible. And yet only one of these two things is possible: on the one side, therefore, there must be a false appearance of contradiction, which on a closer investigation disappears. But on which side is it? If it is supposed that the tenor of the title, 1:1-6, does not accord with that of the section 10:1-22:6, but that it accords well with that of 1:7-9 (with the breadth of expression in 1:7-9, it has also several favourite words not elsewhere occurring in the Book of Proverbs; among these, `aar|maah , subtilty, and m|zimaah , discretion, 1:4), then Ewald's view is probable, that 1-9 is an original whole written at once, and that the author had no other intention than to give it as an introduction to the larger Solomonic Book of Proverbs beginning at 10:1.

But it is also possible that the author of the title has adopted the style of the section Prov 1:7-9. Bertheau, who has propounded this view, and at the same time has rejected, in opposition to Ewald, the idea of the unity of the section, adopts this conclusion, that in 1:8-9 there lies before us a collection of the admonitions of different authors of proverbial poetry, partly original introductions to larger collections of proverbs, which the author of the title gathers together in order that he may give a comprehensive introduction to the larger collection contained in 10:1- 22:16. But such an origin of the section as Bertheau thus imagines is by no means natural; it is more probable that the author, whose object is, according to the title of the book, to give the proverbs of Solomon, introduces these by a long introduction of his own, than that, instead of beginning with Solomon's proverbs, he first presents long extracts of a different kind from collections of proverbs.

If the author, as Bertheau thinks, expresses indeed, in the words of the title, the intention of presenting, along with the "Proverbs of Solomon," also the "words of the wise," then he could not have set about his work more incorrectly and self-contradictorily than if he had begun the whole, which bears the superscription "Proverbs of Solomon" (which must be regarded as presenting the proverbs of Solomon as a key to the words of the wise generally), with the "words of the wise." But besides the opinion of Ewald, which in itself, apart from internal grounds, is more natural and probable than that of Bertheau, there is yet the possibility of another.

Keil, following H. A. Hahn, is of opinion, that in the sense of the author of the title, the section 1-9 is Solomonic as well as 10-22, but that he has repeated the superscription "Proverbs of Solomon" before the latter section, because from that point onward proverbs follow which bear in a special measure the characters of the Mashal (Hävernick's Einl. iii. 428).

The same phenomenon appears in the book of Isaiah, where, after the general title, there follows an introductory address, and then in Isa 2:1 the general title is repeated in a shorter form. That this analogy, however, is here inapplicable, the further discussion of the subject will show.

The introductory section Prov 1:7-9, and the larger section 10-22:16, which contains uniform brief Solomonic apothegms, are followed by a third section, 22:17-24:22. Hitzig, indeed, reckons 10-24:22 as the second section, but with 22:17 there commences an altogether different style, and a much freer manner in the form of the proverb; and the introduction to this new collection of proverbs, which reminds us of the general title, places it beyond a doubt that the collector does not at all intend to set forth these proverbs as Solomonic. It may indeed be possible that, as Keil (iii. 410) maintains, the collector, inasmuch as he begins with the words, "Incline thine ear and hear words of the wise," names his own proverbs generally as "words of the wise," especially since he adds, "and apply thine heart to my knowledge;" but this supposition is contradicted by the superscription of a fourth section, 24:23ff., which follows. This short section, an appendix to the third, bears the superscription, "These things also are lachakaamiym ." If Keil thinks here also to set aside the idea that the following proverbs, in the sense of this superscription, have as their authors "the wise," he does unnecessary violence to himself. The l is here that of authorship and if the following proverbs are composed by the chakaamiym , "the wise," then they are not the production of the one chaakaam , "wise man," Solomon, but they are "the words of the wise" in contradistinction to "the Proverbs of Solomon."

The Proverbs of Solomon begin again at Prov 25:1; and this second large section (corresponding to the first, 10:1-22:16) extends to 29. This fifth portion of the book has a superscription, which, like that of the preceding appendix, commences thus: "Also (gam ) these are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah collected." The meaning of the word he`|tiyquw is not doubtful. It signifies, like the Arameo-Arabic ncch, to remove from their place, and denote that the men of Hezekiah removed from the place where they found them the following proverbs, and placed them together in a separate collection. The words have thus been understood by the Greek translator. From the supplementary words ahi adia'kritoi (such as exclude all dia'krisis ) it is seen that the translator had a feeling of the important literary historical significance of that superscription, which reminds us of the labours of the poetical grammarians appointed by Pisitratus to edit older works, such as those of Hesiod. The Jewish interpreters, simply following the Talmud, suppose that the "also" (gam ) belongs to the whole superscription, inclusive of the relative sentence, and that it thus bears witness to the editing of the foregoing proverbs also by Hezekiah and his companions; (Note: Vid., B. Bathra, 15a. From the fact that Isaiah outlived Hezekiah it is there concluded that the Hezekiah-collegium also continued after Hezekiah's death. Cf. Fürst on the Canon of the O.T. 1868, p. 78f.) which is altogether improbable, for then, if such were the meaning of the words, "which the men of Hezekiah," etc., they ought to have stood after 1:1.

The superscription Prov 25:1 thus much rather distinguishes the following collection from that going before, as having been made under Hezekiah. As two appendices followed the "Proverbs of Solomon," 10:1-22:16, so also two appendices the Hezekiah-gleanings of Solomonic proverbs. The former two appendices, however, originate in general from the "wise," the latter more definitely name the authors: the first, 30, is by "Agur the son of Jakeh;" the second, 31:1-9, by a "King Lemuel." In so far the superscriptions are clear. The name of the authors, elsewhere unknown, point to a foreign country; and to this corresponds the peculiar complexion of these two series of proverbs. As a third appendix to the Hezekiahcollection, 31:10ff. follows, a complete alphabetical proverbial poem which describes the praiseworthy qualities of a virtuous woman.

We are thus led to the conclusion that the Book of Proverbs divides itself into the following parts:-(1) The title of the book, Prov 1:1-6, by which the question is raised, how far the book extends to which it originally belongs; (2) the hortatory discourses, 1:7-9, in which it is a question whether the Solomonic proverbs must be regarded as beginning with these, or whether they are only the introduction thereto, composed by a different author, perhaps the author of the title of the book; (3) the first great collection of Solomonic proverbs, 10-22:16; (4) the first appendix to this first collection, "The words of the wise," 22:17-24:22; (5) the second appendix, supplement of the words of some wise men, 24:23ff.; (6) the second great collection of Solomonic proverbs, which the "men of Hezekiah" collected, 25-29; (7) the first appendix to this second collection, the words of Agur the son of Makeh, 30; (8) the second appendix, the words of King Lemuel, 31:1-9; (9) third appendix, the acrostic ode, 31:10ff. These nine parts are comprehended under three groups: the introductory hortatory discourses with the general title at their head, and the two great collections of Solomonic proverbs with their two appendices. In prosecuting our further investigations, we shall consider the several parts of the book first from the point of view of the manifold forms of their proverbs, then of their style, and thirdly of their type of doctrine. From each of these three subjects of investigation we may expect elucidations regarding the origin of these proverbs and of their collections. 2. The several parts of the Book of Proverbs with respect to the manifold forms of the proverbs.-If the Book of Proverbs were a collection of popular sayings, we should find in it a multitude of proverbs of one line each, as e.g., "Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked" (1 Sam 24:13); but we seek for such in vain. At the first glance, Prov 24:23b appears to be a proverb of one line; but the line "To have respect of persons in judgment is not good," is only the introductory line of a proverb which consists of several lines, v. 24f. Ewald is right in regarding as inadmissible a comparison of the collections of Arabic proverbs by Abu-Obeida, Meidani, and others, who gathered together and expounded the current popular proverbs, with the Book of Proverbs. Ali's Hundred Proverbs are, however, more worthy of being compared with it.

Like these, Solomon's proverbs are, as a whole, the production of his own spirit, and only mediately of the popular spirit. To make the largeness of the number of these proverbs a matter of doubt were inconsiderate.

Eichhorn maintained that even a godlike genius scarcely attains to so great a number of pointed proverbs and ingenious thoughts. But if we distribute Solomon's proverbs over his forty years' reign, then we have scarcely twenty for each year; and one must agree with the conclusion, that the composition of so many proverbs even of the highest ingenuity is no impossible problem for a "godlike genius." When, accordingly, it is related that Solomon wrote 3000 proverbs, Ewald, in his History of Israel, does not find the number too great, and Bertheau does not regard it as impossible that the collection of the "Proverbs of Solomon" has the one man Solomon as their author. The number of the proverbs thus cannot determine us to regard them as having for the most part originated among the people, and the form in which they appear leads to an opposite conclusion. It is, indeed, probable that popular proverbs are partly wrought into these proverbs, (Note: Isaac Euchel (†1804), in his Commentary on the Proverbs, regards Prov 14:4a and 17:19b as such popular proverbs.) and many of their forms of expression are moulded after the popular proverbs; but as they thus lie before us, they are, as a whole, the production of the technical Mashal poetry.

The simplest form is, according to the fundamental peculiarity of the Hebrew verse, the distich. The relation of the two lines to each other is very manifold. The second line may repeat the thought of the first, only in a somewhat altered form, in order to express this thought as clearly and exhaustively as possible. We call such proverbs synonymous distichs; as e.g., Prov 11:25: A soul of blessing is made fat, And he that watereth others is himself watered.

Or the second line contains the other side of the contrast to the statement of the first; the truth spoken in the first is explained in the second by means of the presentation of its contrary. We call such proverbs antithetic distichs; as e.g., Prov 10:1: A wise son maketh his father glad, And a foolish son is his mother's grief.

Similar forms, Prov 10:16; 12:5. Elsewhere, as 18:14; 20:24, the antithesis clothes itself in the form of a question. sometimes it is two different truths that are expressed in the two lines; and the authorization of their union lies only in a certain relationship, and the ground of this union in the circumstance that two lines are the minimum of the technical proverbsynthetic distichs; e.g., 10:18: A cloak of hatred are lying lips, And he that spreadeth slander is a fool.

Not at all infrequently one line does not suffice to bring out the thought intended, the begun expression of which is only completed in the second.

These we call integral (eingedankige) distichs; as e.g., Prov 11:31 (cf. Peter 4:18): The righteous shall be recompensed on the earth- How much more the ungodly and the sinner!

To these distichs also belong all those in which the thought stated in the first receives in the second, by a sentence presenting a reason, or proof, or purpose, or consequence, a definition completing or perfecting it; e.g., Prov 13:14; 16:10; 19:20; 22:28. (Note: Such integral distichs are also 15:3; 16:7,10; 17:13,15; 18:9,13; 19:26-27; 20:7-8,10-11,20-21; 21:4,13,16,21,23-2430; 22:4,11; 24:8,26; 26:16; 27:14; 28:8-9,17,24; 29:1,5,12,14. In 14:27; 15:24; 17:23; 19:27, the second line consists of one sentence with l and the infin.; in 16:12,26; 21:25; 22:9; 27:1; 29:19, of one sentence with kiy ; with 'im kiy , 18:2; 23:17. The two lines, as 11:31; 15:11; 17:7; 19:7ab, 10, 20:27, form a conclusion a minori ad majus, or the reverse. The former or the latter clauses stand in grammatical relation in 23:1-2,15f., 27:22; 29:21 (cf. 22:29; 24:10; 26:12; 29:20, with hypoth. perf., and 26:26 with hypoth. fut.); in the logical relation of reason and consequence, 17:14; 20:2,4; in comparative relation, 12:9, etc. These examples show that the two lines, not merely in the more recent, but also in the old Solomonic Mashal, do not always consist of two parallel members.)

But there is also a fifth form, which corresponds most to the original character of the Mashal: the proverb explaining its ethical object by a resemblance from the region of the natural and every-day life, the parabolee' proper. The form of this parabolic proverb is very manifold, according as the poet himself expressly compares the two subjects, or only places them near each other in order that the hearer or reader may complete the comparison. The proverb is least poetic when the likeness between the two subjects is expressed by a verb; as Prov 27:15 (to which, however, v. 16 belongs): A continual dropping in a rainy day And a contentious woman are alike.

The usual form of expression, neither unpoetic nor properly poetic, is the introduction of the comparison by k| as, and of the similitude in the second clause by keen so; as Prov 10:26: As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, So is the sluggard to them who give him a commission.

This complete verbal statement of the relation of likeness may also be abbreviated by the omission of the keen ; as Prov 25:13; 26:11: As a dog returning to his vomit- A fool returning to his folly.

We call the parabolic proverbs of these three forms comparisons. The last, the abbreviated form of the comparative proverb, which we will call, in contradistinction to the comparative, the emblematic, in which the contrast and its emblem are loosely placed together without any nearer expression of the similitude; as e.g., Prov 26:20; 27:17-18,20. This takes place either by means of the couplative Vav, w|, as 25:25- Cold water to a thirsty soul, And good news from a far country. (Note: This so-called Vav adaequationis, which appears here for the first time in the Proverbs as the connection between the figure and the thing itself without a verbal predicate (cf. on the other hand, Job 5:7; 12:11; 14:11f.), is, like the Vav, w|, of comparison, only a species of that Vav of association which is called in Arab. Waw alajam'a, or Waw alam'ayat, or Waw al'asatsahab (vid., at Isa 42:5); and since usage attributes to it the verbal power of secum habere, it is construed with the accus. Vid., examples in Freytag's Arabum Proverbia, among the recent proverbs beginning with the Arabic letter k.)

Or without the Vav; in which case the second line is as the subscription under the figure or double figure painted in the first; e.g., Prov 25:11f., 11:22: A gold ring in a swine's snout- A fair woman without understanding.

These ground-forms of two lines, can, however, expand into forms of several lines. Since the distich is the peculiar and most appropriate form of the technical proverb, so, when two lines are not sufficient for expressing the thought intended, the multiplication to four, six, or eight lines is most natural. In the tetrastich the relation of the last two to the first two is as manifold as is the relation of the second line to the first in the distich.

There is, however, no suitable example of four-lined stanzas in antithetic relation. But we meet with synonymous tetrastichs, e.g., Prov 23:15f., 24:3f., 28f.; synthetic, 30:5f.; integral, 30:17f., especially of the form in which the last two lines constitute a proof passage beginning with kiy , 22:22f., or peen , 22:24f., or without exponents, 22:26f.; comparative without expressing the comparison, 25:16f. (cf. on the other hand, 26:18f., where the number of lines is questionable), and also the emblematical, 25:4f.: Take away the dross from the silver, And there shall come forth a vessel for the goldsmith; Take away the wicked from before the king, And this throne shall be established in righteousness.

Proportionally the most frequently occurring are tetrastichs, the second half of which forms a proof clause commencing with kiy or peen . Among the less frequent are the six-lined, presenting (Prov 23:1-3; 24:11f.) one and the same thought in manifold aspects, with proofs interspersed. Among all the rest which are found in the collection, 23:12- 14,19-21,26-28; 30:15f., 30:29-31, the first two lines form a prologue introductory to the substance of the proverb; as e.g., 23:12-14: O let instruction enter into thine heart, And apply thine ears to the words of knowledge.

Withhold not correction from the child; For if thou beatest him with the rod-he dies not.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And deliver his soul from hell.

Similarly formed, yet more expanded, is the eight-lined stanza, 23:22-28: Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old.

Buy the truth and sell it not:

Wisdom, and virtue, and understanding.

The father of a righteous man greatly rejoices, And he that begetteth a wise child hath joy of him.

Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, And she that bare thee shall rejoice.

The Mashal proverb here inclines to the Mashal ode; for this octastich may be regarded as a short Mashal song-like the alphabetical Mashal psalm 37, which consists of almost pure tetrastichs.

We have now seen how the distich form multiplies itself into forms consisting of four, six, and eight lines; but it also unfolds itself, as if in onesided multiplication, into forms of three, five, and seven lines. Tristichs arise when the thought of the first line is repeated (Prov 27:22) in the second according to the synonymous scheme, or when the thought of the second line is expressed by contrast in the third (22:29; 28:10) according to the antithetic scheme, or when to the thought expressed in one or two lines (25:8; 27:10) there is added its proof. The parabolic scheme is here represented when the object described is unfolded in two lines, as in the comparison 25:13, or when its nature is portrayed by two figures in two lines, as in the emblematic proverb 25:20: To take off clothing in cold weather, Vinegar upon nitre, And he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.

In the few instances of pentastichs which are found, the last three lines usually unfold the reason of the thought of the first two: Prov 23:4f., 25:6f., 30:32f.; to this 24:13 forms an exception, where the keen before the last three lines introduces the expansion of the figure in the first two. As an instance we quote 25:6f.: Seek not to display thyself in the presence of the king, And stand not in the place of the great.

For better that it be said unto thee, "Come up hither," Than that they humble thee in the presence of the prince, While thine eyes have raised themselves.

Of heptastichs I know of only one example in the collection, viz., Prov 23:6-8: Eat not the bread of the jealous, And lust not after his dainties; For he is like one who calculates with himself:- "Eat and drink," saith he to thee, And his heart is not with thee.

Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, And thou hast wasted thy pleasant words.

From this heptastich, which one will scarcely take for a brief Mashal ode according to the compound strophe-scheme, we see that the proverb of two lines can expand itself to the dimensions of seven and eight lines.

Beyond these limits the whole proverb ceases to be maashaal in the proper sense; and after the manner of Ps 25; 34, and especially 37, it becomes a Mashal ode. Of this class of Mashal odes are, besides the prologue, Prov 22:17-21, that of the drunkard, 23:29-35; that of the slothful man, 24:30-34; the exhortation to industry, 27:23-27; the prayer for a moderate portion between poverty and riches, 30:7-9; the mirror for princes, 31:2-9;' and the praise of the excellent wife, 31:10ff. It is singular that this ode furnishes the only example of the alphabetical acrostic in the whole collection. Even a single trace of original alphabetical sequence afterwards broken up cannot be found. There cannot also be discovered, in the Mashal songs referred to, anything like a completed strophe-scheme; even in 31:10ff. the distichs are broken by tristichs intermingled with them.

In the whole of the first part, Prov 1:7-9, the prevailing form is that of the extended flow of the Mashal song; but one in vain seeks for strophes.

There is not here so firm a grouping of the lines; on the supposition of its belonging to the Solomonic era, this is indeed to be expected. The rhetorical form here outweighs the purely poetical. This first part of the Proverbs consists of the following fifteen Mashal strains: (1) 1:7-19, (2) 20ff., (3) 2, (4) 3:1-18, (5) 19-26, (6) 27ff., (7) 4:1-5:6, (8) 7ff., (9) 6:1-5, (10) 6-11, (11) 12-19, (12) 20ff., (13) 7, (14) 8, (15) 9. In 3 and 9 there are found a few Mashal odes of two lines and of four lines which may be regarded as independent Mashals, and may adapt themselves to the schemes employed; other brief complete parts are only waves in the flow of the larger discourses, or are altogether formless, or more than octastichs. The octastich 6:16-19 makes the proportionally greatest impression of an independent inwoven Mashal. It is the only proverb in which symbolical numbers are used which occurs in the collection from 1 to 29: There are six things which Jahve hateth, And seven are an abhorrence to His soul:

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood; An heart that deviseth the thoughts of evil, Feet that hastily run to wickedness, One that uttereth lies as a false witness, And he who soweth strife between brethren.

Such numerical proverbs to which the name midaah has been given by later Jewish writers (see my Gesch. der Jüd. Poesie, pp. 199, 202) are found in 30. With the exception of Prov 30:7-9,24-28 (cf. Sir. 25:1, 2), the numerical proverb has this peculiarity, found also in most of the numerical proverbs of Sirach (Sir. 23:16; 25:7; 26:5, 28), that the number named in the first parallel line is in the second (cf. Job 5:9) increased by one. On the other hand, the form of the Priamel (Note: From praeambulum, designating a peculiar kind of epigram found in the German poetry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.) is used neither in the Book of Proverbs nor in that of Sirach. Proverbs such as Prov 20:10 ("Diverse weights, diverse measures-an abomination to Jahve are they both") and 20:12 ("The hearing ear, the seeing eye-Jahve hath created them both"), to be distinguished from 17:3; 27:21, and the like, where the necessary unity, and from 27:3, where the necessary resemblance, of the predicate is wanting, are only a weak approach to the Priamel-a stronger, 25:3, where the three subjects form the preamble ("The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings-are unsearchable").

Perhaps Prov 30:11-14 is a greater mutilated Priamel. Here four subjects form the preamble, but there is wanting the conclusion containing the common predicate. This, we believe, exhausts the forms of the Mashal in the collection. It now only remains to make mention of the Mashal chain, i.e., the ranging together in a series of proverbs of a similar character, such as the chain of proverbs regarding the fool, 26:1-12, the sluggard, 26:13-16, the tale-bearer, 26:20-22, the malicious, 26:23-28-but this form belongs more to the technics of the Mashal collection than to that of the Mashal poetry.

We now turn to the separate parts of the book, to examine more closely the forms of their proverbs, and gather materials for a critical judgment regarding the origin of the proverbs which they contain. Not to anticipate, we take up in order the separate parts of the arrangement of the collection.

Since, then, it cannot be denied that in the introductory paedagogic part, Prov 1:7-9, notwithstanding its rich and deep contents, there is exceedingly little of the technical form of the Mashal, as well as generally of technical form at all. This part, as already shown, consist not of proper Mashals, but of fifteen Mashal odes, or rather, perhaps, Mashal discourses, didactic poems of the Mashal kind. In the flow of these discourses separate Mashals intermingle, which may either be regarded as independent, or, as 1:32; 4:18f., can easily be so understood. In the Mashal chains of ch. 4 and 9 we meet with proverbs that are synonymous (9:7,10), antithetic (3:35; 9:8), integral, or of one thought (3:29-30), and synthetic (1:7; 3:5,7), of two lines and of four lines variously disposed (3:9f., 11f., 31f., 33f.); but the parabolic scheme is not at all met with, separate proverbs such as 3:27f. are altogether without form, and keeping out of view the octastich numerical proverb, 6:16-19, the thoughts which form the unity of separate groups are so widely expanded that the measure of the Mashal proper is far exceeded. The character of this whole part is not concentrating, but unfolding. Even the intermingling proverbs of two lines possess the same character. They are for the most part more like dissolved drops than gold coins with sharp outline and firm impress; as e.g., 9:7: He that correcteth the mocker getteth to himself shame; And he that rebuketh the sinner his dishonour.

The few that consist of four lines are closer, more compact, more finished, because they allow greater space for the expression; e.g., Prov 3:9f.: Honour Jahve with thy wealth, And with the first-fruits of all thine income:

And thy barns shall be filled with plenty, And thy vats shall overflow with must.

But beyond the four lines the author knows no limits of artistic harmony; the discourse flows on till it has wholly or provisionally exhausted the subject; it pauses not till it reaches the end of its course, and then, taking breath, it starts anew. We cannot, moreover, deny that there is beauty in this new springing forth of the stream of the discourse with its fresh transparent waves; but it is a peculiar beauty of the rhetorically decomposed, dissolved Mashal, going forth, as it were, from its confinement, and breathing its fragrance far and wide.

The fifteen discourses, in which the Teacher appears twelve times and Wisdom three times, are neither of a symmetrically chiselled form nor of internally fashioned coherence, but yet are a garland of songs having internal unity, with a well-arranged manifoldness of contents. It is true that Bertheau recognises here neither unity of the contents nor unity of the formal character; but there is no Old Testament portion of like extent, and at the same time of more systematic internal unity, and which bears throughout a like formal impress, than this. Bertheau thinks that he has discovered in certain passages a greater art in the form; and certainly there are several sections which consist of just ten verses. But this is a mere accident; for the first Mashal ode consists of groups of 1, 2, and 10 verses, the second of 8 and 6 verses, the third of 10 and 12, the fourth of 10 and 8, the fifth of 2 and 6, etc.-each group forming a complete sense. The verses are met with six times, and if Prov 4:1-9 from the Peshito, and 4:20- 27 from the LXX, are included, eight times, without our regarding these decades as strophes, and without our being able to draw any conclusion regarding a particular author of these decade portions. In 1:20-33, Bertheau finds indeed, along with the regular structure of verses, an exact artistic formation of strophes (3 times 4 verses with an echo of 2). But he counts instead of the stichs the Masoretic verses, and these are not the true formal parts of the strophe.

We now come to the second part of the collection, whose superscription sh|lomoh mish|leey can in no respect be strange to us, since the collection of proverbs here commencing, compared with Prov 1:7-9, may with special right bear the name Mishle. The 375 proverbs which are classed together in this part, 10-22:16, without any comprehensive plan, but only according to their more or fewer conspicuous common characteristics (Bertheau, p. xii), consist all and every one of distichs; for each Masoretic verse falls naturally into two stichs, and nowhere (not even 19:19) does such a distich proverb stand in necessary connection with one that precedes or that follows; each is in itself a small perfected and finished whole. The tristich 19:7 is only an apparent exception. In reality it is a distich with the disfigured remains of a distich that has been lost. The LXX has here two distichs which are wanting in our text. The second is that which is found in our text, but only in a mutilated form: ho polla' kako poioo'n telesiourgei' kaki'an, He that does much harm perfects mischief, ho's de' erethi'zei lo'gous ou soothee'setai.

And he that uses provoking words shall not escape.

Perhaps the false rendering of mr` rbym yshlm-r` mrdp 'mrym l' ymlT The friend of every one is rewarded with evil, He who pursues after rumours does not escape.

But not only are all these proverbs distichs, they have also, not indeed without exception, but in by far the greatest number, a common character in that they are antithetic. Distichs of predominating antithetic character stand here together. Along with these all other schemes are, it is true, represented: the synonymous, Prov 11:7,25,30; 12:14,28; 14:19, etc.; the integral, or of one thought, 14:7; 15:3, etc., particularly in proverbs with the comparative min , 12:9; 15:16-17; 16:8,19; 17:10; 21:19; 22:1, and with the ascending kiy- 'ap much more, 11:31; 15:11; 17:7; 19:7,10; 21:27; the synthetic, 10:18; 11:29; 14:17; 19:13; the parabolic, the most feebly represented, for the only specimens of it are 10:26; 11:22; besides which I know not what other Bertheau could quote.

We shall further see that in another portion of the book the parabolic proverbs are just as closely placed together as are the antithetic. Here almost universally the two members of the proverbs stand together in technical parallelism as thesis and antithesis; also in the synonymous proverbs the two members are the parallel rays of one thought; in the synthetic two monostichs occur in loose external connection to suffice for the parallelism as a fundamental law of the technical proverb. But also in these proverbs in which a proper parallelism is not found, both members being needed to form a complete sentence, verse and members are so built up, according to Bertheau's self-confirmatory opinion, that in regard to extent and the number of words they are like verses with parallel members.

To this long course of distichs which profess to be the Mishle of Solomon, there follows a course, Prov 22:17-24:22, of "words of the wise," prefaced by the introduction 22:17-21, which undeniably is of the same nature as the greater introduction, 1:7-9, and of which we are reminded by the form of address preserved throughout in these "words of the wise." These "words of the wise" comprehend all the forms of the Mashal, from those of two lines in 22:28; 23:9; 24:7-10, to the Mashal song 23:29-35.

Between these limits are the tetrastichs, which are the most popular form, 22:22f., 24f., 26f., 23:10f., 15f., 17f., 24:1f., 3f., 5f., 15,f., 17f., 19f., 21f.- pentastichs, 23:4f., 24:13f., and hexastichs, 23:1-3,12-14,19-21,26-28; 24:11f.;-of tristichs, heptastichs, and octastichs are at least found one specimen of each, 22:29; 23:6-8,22-25.

Bertheau maintains that there is a difference between the structure of these proverbs and that of the preceding, for he counts the number of the words which constitute a verse in the case of the latter and of the former; but such a proceeding is unwarrantable, for the remarkably long Masoretic verse Prov 24:12 contains eighteen words; and the poet is not to be made accountable for such an arrangement, for in his mind 24:11f. forms a hexastich, and indeed a very elegant one. Not the words of the Masoretic verse, but the stichs are to be counted. Reckoning according to the stichs, I can discover no difference between these proverbs and the preceding. In the preceding ones also the number of the words in the stichs extends from two to five, the number two being here, however, proportionally more frequently found (e.g., 24:4b, 24:8a, 10b); a circumstance which has its reason in this, that the symmetry of the members is often very much disturbed, there being frequently no trace whatever of parallelism.

To the first appendix to the "Proverbs of Solomon" there follows a second, Prov 24:23ff., with the superscription, "These things also to the wise," which contains a hexastich, 24:23b-25, a distich, v. 26, a tristich, v. 27, a tetrastich, v. 28f., and a Mashal ode, v. 30ff., on the sluggard-the last in the form of an experience, of the poet like Ps 37:35f. The moral which he has drawn from this recorded observation is expressed in two verses such as we have already found at Prov 6:10f. These two appendices are, as is evident from their commencement as well as from their conclusion, in closest relation to the introduction, 1:7-9.

There now follows in 25-29 the second great collection of "Proverbs of Solomon," "copied out," as the superscription mentions, by the direction of King Hezekiah. It falls, apparently, into two parts; for as Prov 24:30ff., a Mashal hymn stands at the end of the two appendices, so that the Mashal hymn 27:23ff. must be regarded as forming the division between the two halves of this collection. It is very sharply distinguished from the collection beginning with ch. 10. The extent of the stichs and the greater or less observance of the parallelism furnish no distinguishing mark, but there are others worthy of notice. In the first collection the proverbs are exclusively in the form of distichs; here we have also some tristichs, 25:8,13,20; 27:10,22; 28:10, tetrastichs, 25:4f., 9f., 21f., 26:18f., 24f., 27:15f., and pentastichs, 25:6f., besides the Mashal hymn already referred to.

The kind of arrangement is not essentially different from that in the first collection; it is equally devoid of plan, yet there are here some chains or strings of related proverbs, Prov 26:1-13-16,20-22. A second essential distinction between the two collections is this, that while in the first the antithetic proverb forms the prevailing element, here is it the parabolic, and especially the emblematic; in 25-27 are sentences almost wholly of this character. We say almost, for to place together proverbs of this kind exclusively is not the plan of the collector. There are also proverbs of the other schemes, fewer synonymous, etc., than antithetic, and the collection begins in very varied quodlibet: 25:2, an antithetic proverb; 25:3, a priamel with three subjects; 25:4f., an emblematic tetrastich; 25:6f., a pentastich; 25:8, a tristich; 25:9f., a tetrastich, with the negative pn ; 25:11, an emblematic distich ("Golden apples in silver caskets-a word spoken in a fitting way"). The antithetic proverbs are found especially in 28 and 29: the first and the last proverb of the whole collection, 25:2; 29:27, are antithetic; but between these two the comparative and the figurative proverbs are so prevalent, that this collection appears like a variegated picture-book with explanatory notes written underneath. In extent it is much smaller than the foregoing. I reckon 126 proverbs in 137 Masoretic verses.

The second collection of Solomon's proverbs has also several appendices, the first of which, 30, according to the inscription, is by an otherwise unknown author, Agur the son of Jakeh. The first poem of this appendix present in a thoughtful way the unsearchableness of God. This is followed by certain peculiar pieces, such as a tetrastich regarding the purity of God's word, Prov 30:5f.; a prayer for a moderate position between riches and poverty, vv. 7-9; a distich against slander, v. 10; a priamel without the conclusion, vv. 11-14; the insatiable four (a Midda), v. 15f.; a tetrastich regarding the disobedient son, v. 17, the incomprehensible four, vv. 18-20; the intolerable four, vv. 21-23; the diminutive but prudent four, vv. 24-28; the excellent four, vv. 29-31; a pentastich recommending prudent silence, v. 32f. Two other supplements form the conclusion of the whole book: the counsel of Lemuel's mother to her royal son, 31:2-9, and the praise of the virtuous woman in the form of an alphabetical acrostic, 31:10ff.

After we have acquainted ourselves with the manifold forms of the technical proverbs and their distribution in the several parts of the collection, the question arises, What conclusions regarding the origin of these several parts may be drawn from these forms found in them? We connect with this the conception of Ewald, who sees represented in the several parts of the collection the chief points of the history of proverbial poetry. The "Proverbs of Solomon," Prov 10:1-22:16, appear to him to be the oldest collection, which represents the simplest and the most ancient kind of proverbial poetry. Their distinguishing characteristics are the symmetrical two-membered verse, complete in itself, containing in itself a fully intelligible meaning, and the quick contrast of thesis and antithesis.

The oldest form of the technical proverb, according to Ewald, is, according to our terminology, the antithetic distich, such as predominates in 10:1- 22:16.

Along with these antithetic distichs we find here also others of a different kind. Ewald so considers the contrast of the two members to be the original fundamental law of the technical proverb, that to him these other kinds of distichs represent the diminution of the inner force of the twomembered verse, the already begun decay of the art in its oldest limits and laws, and the transition to a new method. In the "Proverbs of Solomon," 25-29, of the later collection, that rigorous formation of the verse appears already in full relaxation and dissolution: the contrast of the sense of the members appears here only exceptionally; the art turns from the crowded fulness and strength of the representation more to the adorning of the thought by means of strong and striking figures and forms of expression, to elegant painting of certain moral conditions and forms of life; and the more the technical proverb is deprived of the breath of a vigorous poetic spirit, so much the nearer does it approach to the vulgar proverb; the full and complete symmetry of the two members disappears, less by the abridgment of one of them, than by the too great extension and amplification of the two-membered proverb into longer admonitions to a moral life, and descriptions relating thereto.

So the proverbial poetry passes essentially into a different form and manner. "While it loses in regard to internal vigorous brevity and strength, it seeks to gain again by means of connected instructive exposition, by copious description and detailed representation; breaking up its boldly delineated, strong, and yet simply beautiful form, it rises to oratorical display, to attractive eloquence, in which, indeed, though the properly poetical and the artistic gradually disappears, yet the warmth and easy comprehension are increased." In ch. 1-9, the introduction of the older collection, and Prov 22:17-24, of the first half of the supplement to the older collection (25-29 is the second half), supplied by a later writer, the great change is completed, the growth of which the later collection of the "Proverbs of Solomon," particularly in 25-29, reveals.

The symmetry of the two members of the verse is here completely destroyed; the separate proverb appears almost only as an exception; the proverbial poetry has passed into admonition and discourse, and has become in many respects lighter, and more flexible, and flowing, and comprehensible. "It is true that on the side of this later form of proverbial poetry there is not mere loss. While it always loses the excellent pointed brevity, the inner fulness and strength of the old proverbs, it gains in warmth, impressiveness, intelligibility; the wisdom which at first strives only to make its existence and its contents in endless manifoldness known, reaches this point at last, that having become clear and certain, it now also turns itself earnestly and urgently to men." In the later additions, ch. 30- 31, appended altogether externally, the proverbial poetry has already disappeared, and given place to elegant descriptions of separate moral truths. While the creative passes into the background, the whole aim is now toward surprising expansion and new artistic representation.

This view of the progressive development of the course of proverbial poetry is one of the chief grounds for the determination of Ewald's judgment regarding the parts that are Solomonic and those that are not Solomonic in the collection. In Prov 10:1-22:16 he does not regard the whole as Solomon's, as immediately and in their present form composed by Solomon; but the breath of the Solomonic spirit enlivens and pervades all that has been added by other and later poets. But most of the proverbs of the later collection (25-29) are not much older than the time of Hezekiah; yet there are in it some that are Solomonic, and of the period next to Solomon. The collection stretches backward with its arms, in part indeed, as the superscription, the "Proverbs of Solomon," shows, to the time of Solomon. On the other hand, in the introduction, 1-9, and in the first half of the appendix (22:17-24), there is not found a single proverb of the time of Solomon; both portions belong to two poets of the seventh century B.C., a new era, in which the didactic poets added to the older Solomonic collection longer pieces of their own composition. The four small pieces, 30:1-14,15-33; 31:1-10ff., are of a still later date; they cannot belong to an earlier period than the end of the seventh or the beginning of the sixth century B.C.

We recognise the penetration, the sensibility, the depth of thought indicate by this opinion of Ewald's regarding the origin of the book; yet for the most part it is not supported by satisfactory proof. If we grant that he has on the whole rightly construed the history of proverbial poetry, nevertheless the conclusion that proverbs which bear in themselves the marks of the oldest proverbial poetry belong to the Solomonic era, and that the others belong to a period more nearly or more remotely subsequent to it, is very fallacious. In this case much that is found in Sirach's Book of Proverbs must be Solomonic; and the 'cp mshly of Isaac Satanow, (Note: Isaac Ha-Levi was born at Satanow (whence his name), in Russian Poland, 1732, died at Berlin 1802. Besides other works, he was the author of several collections of gnomes and apothegms in imitation of the Proverbs. Vid., Delitzsch Zur Gesch. der Jüd. Poesie, p. 115.]) the contemporary of Moses Mendelssohn, as well as many other proverbs in the collection drbnn mlyn, and in the poetical works of other Jewish poets belonging to the middle ages or to later times, might be dated back perhaps a thousand years.

Along with the general course of development the individuality of the poet is also to be taken into account; an ancient poet can, along with the formally completed, produce the imperfect, which appears to belong to a period of art that has degenerated, and a modern poet can emulate antiquity with the greatest accuracy. but Ewald's construction of the progress of the development of proverbial poetry is also in part arbitrary.

That the two-membered verse is the oldest form of the technical proverb we shall not dispute, but that it is the two-membered antithetic verse is a supposition that cannot be proved; and that Solomon wrote only antithetic distichs is an absurd assertion, to which Keil justly replies, that the adhering to only one form and structure is a sign of poverty, of mental narrowness and one-sidedness.

There are also other kinds of parallelism, which are not less beautiful and vigorous than the antithetic, and also other forms of proverbs besides the distich in which the thought, which can in no way be restrained within two lines, must necessarily divide itself into the branches of a greater number of lines. Thus I must agree with Keil in the opinion, that Ewald's assertion that in the Hezekiah-collection the strong form of the technical proverb is in full dissolution, contains an exaggeration. If the first collection. Prov 10:1-22:16, contains only two (10:26; 11:22) figurative proverbs, while it would be altogether foolish to deny that these tow, because they were figurative proverbs, were Solomonic, or to affirm that he was the author of only these two, so it is self-evident that the Hezekiah-collection, which is principally a collection of figurative proverbs, must contain many proverbs in which a different kind of parallelism prevails, which has the appearance of a looser connection. Is it not probable that Solomon, who had an open penetrating eye for the greatest and the smallest objects of nature, composed many such proverbs? And is e.g., the proverb 26:23, Dross of silver spread over a potsherd- Burning lips and a wicked heart, less beautiful, and vigorous, and worthy of Solomon than any antithetic distich? If Ewald imagines that the 3000 proverbs which Solomon wrote were all constructed according to this one model, we are much rather convinced that Solomon's proverbial poetry, which found the distich and the tetrastich as forms of proverbs already in use, would not only unfold within the limits of the distich the most varied manifoldness of thought and form, but would also within the limits of the Mashal generally, run through the whole scale from the distich up to octastichs and more extensive forms. But while we cannot accept Ewald's criteria which he applies to the two collections, Prov 10:1-22:16 and 25-29, yet his delineation of the form and kind of proverbial poetry occurring in 1-9, 22:17ff., is excellent, as is also his conclusion, that these portions belong to a new and more recent period of proverbial poetry. Since in 22:17-21 manifestly a new course of "Words of the Wise" by a poet later than Solomon is introduced, it is possible, yea, not improbable, that he, or, as Ewald thinks, another somewhat older poet, introduces in 1:7-9 the "Proverbs of Solomon" following from 10:1 onward.

But if Solomon composed not only distichs, but also tristichs, etc., it is strange that in the first collection, 10-22:16, there are exclusively distichs; and if he constructed not only contrasted proverbs, but equally figurative proverbs, it is as strange that in the first collection the figurative proverbs are almost entirely wanting, while in the second collection, 25-29, on the contrary, they prevail. This remarkable phenomenon may be partly explained if we could suppose that not merely the second collection but both of them, were arranged by the "men of Hezekiah," and that the whole collection of the Solomonic proverbs was divided by them into two collections according to their form. But leaving out of view other objections, one would in that case have expected in the first collection the proportionally great number of the antithetic distichs which stand in the second.

If we regard both collections as originally one whole, then there can be no rational ground for its being divided in this particular way either by the original collector or by a later enlarger of the collection. We have therefore to regard the two portions as the work of two different authors. The second is by the "men of Hezekiah;" the first cannot be by Solomon himself, since the number of proverbs composed, and probably also written out by Solomon, amounted to 3000; besides, if Solomon was the author of the collection, there would be visible on it the stamp of his wisdom in its plan and order: it is thus the work of another author, who is certainly different from the author of the introductory Mashal poems, Prov 1:7-9. For if the author of the title of the book were not at the same time the author of the introduction, he must have taken it from some other place; thus it is inconceivable how he could give the title "Proverbs of Solomon," etc., 1:1-6, to poems which were not composed by Solomon. If 1:7-9 is not by Solomon, then these Mashal poems are explicable only as the work of the author of the title of the book, and as an introduction to the "Proverbs of Solomon," beginning 10:1. It must be one and the same author who edited the "Proverbs of Solomon" 10:1-22:16, prefixed 1:7-9 as an introduction to them, and appended to them the "Words of the Wise," 22:17-24:22; the second collector then appended to this book a supplement of the "Words of the Wise," 24:23ff., and then the Hezekiahcollection of Solomonic proverbs, 25-29; perhaps also, in order that the book might be brought to a close in the same form in which it was commenced, he added (Note: Zöckler takes Prov 24:23ff. as a second appendix to the first principal collection. This is justifiable, but the second superscription rather suggests two collectors.) the non-Solomonic proverbial poem 30:f. We do not, however, maintain that the book has this origin, but only this, that on the supposition of the non-Solomonic origin of 1:7-9 it cannot well have any other origin. But the question arises again, and more emphatically, How was it possible that the first collector left as gleanings to the second so great a number of distichs, almost all parabolical, and besides, all more than two-lined proverbs of Solomon? One can scarcely find the reason of this singular phenomenon in anything else than in the judgment of the author of the first collection as the determining motive of his selection. For when we think also on the sources and origin of the two collections, the second always presupposes the first, and that which is singular in the author's thus restricting himself can only have its ground in the freedom which he allowed to his subjectivity.

Before we more closely examine the style and the teaching of the book, and the conclusions thence arising, another phenomenon claims our attention, which perhaps throws light on the way in which the several collections originated; but, at all events, it may not now any longer remain out of view, when we are in the act of forming a judgment on this point. 3. The repetitions in the Book of Proverbs.-We find not only in the different parts of the collection, but also within the limits of one and the same part, proverbs which wholly or in part are repeated in the same or in similar words. Before we can come to a judgment, we must take cognizance as closely as possible of this fact. We begin with "The Proverbs of Solomon," 10-22:16; for this collection is in relation to 25-29 certainly the earlier, and it is especially with respect to the Solomonic proverbs that this fact demands an explanation. In this earlier collection we find, (1) whole proverbs repeated in exactly the same words: Prov 14:12= 16:25;--(2) proverbs slightly changed in their form of expression: 10:1 = 15:20; 14:20 = 19:4; 16:2 = 21:2; 19:5 = 19:9; 20:10 = 20:23; 21:9 = 21:19--(3) proverbs almost identical in form, but somewhat different in sense: 10:2 = 11:4; 13:14 = 14:27--(4) proverbs the first lines of which are the same: 10:15 = 18:11--(5) proverbs with their second lines the same: 10:6 = 10:11; 10:8 = 10:10; 15:33 = 18:12--(6) proverbs with one line almost the same: 11:13 = 20:19; 11:21 = 16:5; 12:14 - 13:2; 14:31 = 17:5; 16:18 = 18:12; 19:12 = 20:2; comp. also 16:28 with 17:9; 19:25 with 21:11.

In comparing these proverbs, one will perceive that for the most part the external or internal resemblance of the surrounding has prompted the collector of place the one proverb in this place and the other in that place (not always indeed; for what reason e.g., could determine the position of Prov 16:25 and 19:5,9, I cannot say); then that the proverb standing earlier is generally, to all appearance, also the earlier formed, for the second of the pair is mostly a synonymous distich, which generally further extends antithetically one line of the first: cf. 18:11 with 10:15; 20:10,23 with 11:1; 20:19 with 11:13; 16:5 with 11:21; 20:2 with 19:12, also 17:5 with 14:31, where from an antithetic proverb a synthetic one is formed; but here also there are exceptions, as 13:2 compared with 12:14, and 15:33 with 18:12, where the same line is in the first case connected with a synonymous, and in the second with an antithetic proverb; but here also the contrast is so loose, that the earlier-occurring proverb has the appearance of priority.

We now direct our attention to the second collection, 25-29. When we compare the proverbs found here with one another, we see among them a disproportionately smaller number of repetitions than in the other collection; only a single entire proverb is repeated in almost similar terms, but in an altered sense, Prov 29:20 = 26:12; but proverbs such as 28:12,28; 29:2, notwithstanding the partial resemblance, are equally original. On the other hand, in this second collection we find numerous repetitions of proverbs and portions of proverbs from the first:-(1) Whole proverbs perfectly identical (leaving out of view insignificant variations): 25:24 = 21:9; 26:22 = 18:8; 27:12 = 22:3; 27:13 = 20:16--(2) proverbs identical in meaning with somewhat changed expression: 26:13 = 22:13; 26:15 = 19:24; 28:6 = 19:1; 28:19 = 12:11; 29:13 = 22:2--(3) proverbs with one line the same and one line different: 27:21 = 17:3; 29:22 = 15:18; cf. also 27:15 with 19:13. when we compare these proverbs with one another, we are uncertain as to many of them which has the priority, as e.g., 27:21 = 17:3; 29:22 = 15:18; but in the case of others there is no doubt that the Hezekiah-collection contains the original form of the proverb which is found in the other collection, as 26:13; 28:6,19; 29:13; 27:15, in relation to their parallels.

In the other portions of this book also we find such repetitions as are met with in these two collections of Solomonic proverbs. In Prov 1:7-9:18 we have 2:16, a little changed, repeated in 7:5, and 3:15 in 8:11; 9:10a = 1:7a is a case not worthy of being mentioned, and it were inappropriate here to refer to 9:4,16. In the first appendix of "the Words of the Wise," 22:17- 24:22, single lines often repeat themselves in another connection; cf. 23:3 and 6, 23:10 and 22:28; 23:17f. and 24:13f., 22:23 and 23:11,17 and 24:1.

That in such cases the one proverb is often the pattern of the other, is placed beyond a doubt by the relation of 24:19 to Ps 37:1; cf. also Prov 24:20 with Ps 37:38. If here there are proverbs like those of Solomon in their expression, the presumption is that the priority belongs to the latter, as Prov 23:27 cf. 22:14; 24:5f. cf. 11:14; 24:19f. cf. 13:9, in which latter case the justice of the presumption is palpable. Within the second appendix of "the Words of the Wise," 24:23ff., no repetitions are to be expected on account of its shortness; yet is 24:23 repeated from the Solomonic Mashal 28:21, and as 24:33f. are literally the same as 6:10f., the priority is presumably on the side of the author of 1:7-9:18, at least of the Mashal in the form in which he communicates it. The supplements 30 and 31 afford nothing that is worth mention as bearing on our present inquiry, (Note: Quite the same phenomenon, Fleischer remarks, presents itself in the different collections of proverbs ascribed to the Caliph Ali, where frequently one and the same thought in one collection is repeated in manifold forms in a second, here in a shorter, there in a longer form. As a general principle this is to be borne in mind, that the East transmits unchanged, with scrupulous exactness, only religious writings regarded as holy and divine, and therefore these Proverbs have been transmitted unchanged only since they became a distinct part of the canon; before that time it happened to them, as to all in the East that is exposed to the arbitrariness of the changing spirit and the intercourse of life, that one and the same original text has been modified by one speaker and writer after another. Thus of the famous poetical works of the East, such e.g., as Firdusi's Schah- Nahem (Book of the Kings) and Sadi's Garden of Roses, not one MS copy agrees with another.) and we may therefore now turn to the question, What insight into the origin of these proverbs and their collection do the observations made afford?

From the numerous repetitions of proverbs and portions of proverbs of the first collection of the "Proverbs of Solomon" in the Hezekiahcollection, as well as from another reason stated at the end of the foregoing section of our inquiry, we conclude that the two collections were by different authors; in other words, that they had not both "the men of Hezekiah" for their authors. It is true that the repetitions in themselves do not prove anything against the oneness of their authorship for there are within the several collections, and even within 9-1 (cf. Prov 6:20 with 1:8; 8:10f. with 3:14f.), repetitions, notwithstanding the oneness of their authorship. But if two collections of proverbs are in so many various ways different in their character, as 10:1-22:16 and 25-29, then the previous probability rises almost to a certainty by such repetitions.

From the form, for the most part anomalous, in which the Hezekiahcollection presents the proverbs and portions of proverbs which are found also in the first collection, and from their being otherwise independent, we further conclude that "the men of Hezekiah" did not borrow from the first collection, but formed it from other sources. But since one does not understand why "the men of Hezekiah" should have omitted so great a number of genuine Solomonic proverbs which remain, after deducting the proportionally few that have been repeated (for this omission is not to be explained by saying that they selected those that were appropriate and wholesome for their time), we are further justified in the conclusion that the other collection was known to them as one current in their time. Their object was, indeed, not to supplement this older collection; they rather regarded their undertaking as a similar people's book, which they wished to place side by side with that collection without making it superfluous. The difference of the selection in the two collections has its whole directing occasion in the difference of the intention. The first collection begins (Prov 10:1) with the proverb- A wise son maketh glad his father, And a foolish son is the grief of his mother; the second (25:2) with the proverb- It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, And the glory of kings to search out a matter.

The one collection is a book for youth, to whom it is dedicated in the extended introduction, Prov 1:7-9:18; the second is a people's book suited to the time of Hezekiah ("Solomon's Wisdom in Hezekiah's days," as Stier has named it), and therefore it takes its start not, like the first, from the duties of the child, but from those of the king. If in the two collections everything does not stand in conscious relation to these different objects, yet the collectors at least have, from the commencement to the close (cf. 22:15 with 29:26), these objects before their eyes.

As to the time at which the first collection was made, the above considerations also afford us some materials for forming a judgment.

Several pairs of proverbs which it contains present to us essentially the same sayings in older and more recent forms. Keil regards the proverbs also that appear less original as old-Solomonic, and remarks that one and the same poet does not always give expression to the same thoughts with the same pregnant brevity and excellence, and affirms that changes and reproductions of separate proverbs may proceed even from Solomon himself. This is possible; but if we consider that even Davidic psalms have been imitated, and that in the "Words of the Wise" Solomonic proverbs are imitated-moreover, that proverbs especially are subject to changes, and invite to imitation and transformation-we shall find it to be improbable.

Rather we would suppose, that between the publication of the proverbs of Solomon and the preparation of the collection 10-22:16 a considerable time elapsed, during which the old-Solomonic Mashal had in the mouths of the people and of poets acquired a multitude of accretions, and that the collector had without hesitation gathered together such indirect Solomonic proverbs with those that were directly Solomonic. But did not then the 3000 Solomonic proverbs afford to him scope enough? We must answer this question in the negative; for if that vast number of Solomonic proverbs was equal in moral-religious worth to those that have been preserved to us, then neither the many repetitions within the first collection nor the proportional poverty of the second can be explained.

The "men of Hezekiah" made their collection of Solomonic proverbs nearly 300 years after Solomon's time; but there is no reason to suppose that the old book of the Proverbs of Solomon had disappeared at that time.

Much rather we may with probability conclude, from the subjects to which several proverbs of these collections extend (husbandry, war, court life, etc.), and from Solomon's love for the manifold forms of natural and of social life, that his 3000 proverbs would not have afforded much greater treasures than these before us. But if the first collection was made at a time in which the old-Solomonic proverbs had been already considerably multiplied by new combinations, accretions, and imitations, then probably a more suitable time for their origination could not be than that of Jehoshaphat, which was more related to the time of Solomon than to that of David. The personality of Jehoshaphat, inclined toward the promotion of the public worship of God, the edification of the people, the administration of justice; the dominion of the house of David recognised and venerated far and wide among neighbouring peoples; the tendencies of that time towards intercourse with distant regions; the deep peace which followed the subjugation of the confederated nations-all these are features which stamped the time of Jehoshaphat as a copy of that of Solomon.

Hence we are to expect in it the fostering care of the Chokma. If the author of the introduction and editor of the older book of Proverbs lived after Solomon and before Hezekiah, then the circumstances of the case most suitably determine his time as at the beginning of the reign of Jehoshaphat, some seventy years after Solomon's death.

If in 1-9 it is frequently said that wisdom was seen openly in the streets and ways, this agrees with 2 Chron 17:7-9, where it is said that princes, priests, and Levites, sent out by Jehoshaphat (compare the Carolingian missi), went forth into the towns of Judah with the book of the law in their hands as teachers of the people, and with 2 Chron 19:4, where it is stated that Jehoshaphat himself "went out through the people from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the Lord God of their fathers." We have an evidence of the fondness for allegorical forms of address at that time in 2 Kings 14:8-11 (2 Chron 25:17-21), which is so far favourable to the idea that the allegorizing author of 1-9 belonged to that epoch of history.

This also agrees with the time of Jehoshaphat, that in the first collection the kingdom appears in its bright side, adorned with righteousness (Prov 14:35; 16:10,12-13; 20:8), wisdom (20:26), grace and truth (20:28), love to the good (22:11), divine guidance (21:1), and in the height of power (16:14- 15; 19:12); while in the second collection, which immediately begins with a series of the king's sayings, the kingdom is seen almost only (with exception of 29:14) on its dark side, and is represented under the destructive dominion of tyranny (28:15-16; 29:2), of oppressive taxation (29:4), of the Camarilla (25:5; 29:12), and of multiplied authorities (28:2).

Elster is right when he remarks, that in 10-22:16 the kingdom in its actual state corresponds to its ideal, and the warning against the abuse of royal power lies remote. If these proverbs more distinguishably than those in 25-29 bear the physiognomy of the time of David and Solomon, so, on the other hand, the time of Jehoshaphat, the son and successor of Asa, is favourable to their collection; while in the time of Hezekiah, the son and successor of Ahaz, and father and predecessor of Manasseh, in which, through the sin of Ahaz, negotiations with the world-kingdom began, that cloudy aspect of the kingdom which is borne by the second supplement, 24:23-25, was brought near.

Thus between Solomon and Hezekiah, and probably under Jehoshaphat, the older Book of Proverbs contained in 1-24:22 first appeared. The "Proverbs of Solomon," Prov 10:1-22:16, which formed the principal part, the very kernel of it, were enclosed on the one side, at their commencement, by the lengthened introduction 1:7-9:18, in which the collector announces himself as a highly gifted teacher and as the instrument of the Spirit of revelation, and on the other side are shut in at their close by "the Words of the Wise," 22:17-24:34. The author, indeed, does not announce 1:6 such a supplement of "the Words of the Wise;" but after these words in the title of the book, he leads us to expect it. The introduction to the supplement 22:17-21 sounds like an echo of the larger introduction, and corresponds to the smaller compass of the supplement.

The work bears on the whole the stamp of a unity; for even in the last proverb with which it closes (Prov 24:21f., "My son, fear thou Jahve and the king," etc.), there still sounds the same key-note which the author had struck at the commencement. A later collector, belonging to the time subsequent to Hezekiah, enlarged the work by the addition of the Hezekiah-portion, and by a short supplement of "the Words of the Wise," which he introduces, according to the law of analogy, after 22:17-24:22.

The harmony of the superscriptions 24:23; 25:1, favours at least the supposition that these supplements are the work of one hand. The circumstance that "the Words of the Wise," 22:17-24:22, in two of their maxims refer to the older collection of Solomonic proverbs, but, on the contrary, that "the Words of the Wise," 24:23ff., refer in 24:23 to the Hezekiah- collection, and in 24:33f. to the introduction 1:7-9:18, strengthens the supposition that with 24:23 a second half of the book, added by another hand, begins.

There is no reason for not attributing the appendix 30-31 to this second collector; perhaps he seeks, as already remarked above, to render by means of it the conclusion of the extended Book of Proverbs uniform with that of the older book. Like the older collection of "Proverbs of Solomon," so also now the Hezekiah'-collection has "Proverbs of Solomon," so also now the Hezekiah-collection has "Proverbs of the Wise" on the right and on the left, and the king of proverbial poetry stands in the midst of a worthy retinue. The second collector distinguishes himself from the first by this, that he never professes himself to be a proverbial poet. It is possible that the proverbial poem of the "virtuous woman," Prov 31:10ff., may be his work, but there is nothing to substantiate this opinion.

After this digression, not which we have been led by the repetitions found in the book, we now return, conformably to our plan, to examine it from the point of view of the forms of its language and of its doctrinal contents, and to inquire whether the results hitherto attained are confirmed, and perhaps more fully determined, by this further investigation. 4. The Book of the Proverbs on the side of its manifoldness of style and form of instruction.-We commence our inquiry with the relation in which 10-22:16 and 25-29 stand to each other with reference to their forms of language. If the primary stock of both of these sections belongs indeed to the old time of Solomon, then they must bear essentially the same verbal stamp upon them. Here we of course keep out of view the proverbs that are wholly or partially identical. If the expression chad|reey-baaTen (the chambers of the body) is in the first collection a favourite figure (Prov 18:8; 20:27,30), coined perhaps by Solomon himself, the fact that this figure is also found in 26:22 is not to be taken into account, since in 26:22 the proverb 18:8 is repeated. Now it cannot at all be denied, that in the first collection certain expressions are met with which one might expect to meet again in the Hezekiah-collection, and which, notwithstanding, are not to be found in it.

Ewald gives a list of such expressions, in order to show that the old- Solomonic dialect occurs, with few exceptions, only in the first collection.

But his catalogue, when closely inspected, is unsatisfactory. That many of these expressions occur also in the introduction Prov 1-9 proves, it is true, nothing against him. But mar|pee' (health), 12:18; 13:17; 14:30; 15:4; 16:24, occurs also in 29:1; rideep (he pursueth), 11:19; 12:11; 15:9; 19:7, also in 28:19; nir|gaan (a tattler), 16:28; 18:8, also in 26:20,22; yinaaqeh lo' (not go unpunished), 11:21; 16:5; 17:5, also in 28:20.

These expressions thus supply an argument for, not against, the linguistic oneness of the two collections. The list of expressions common to the two collections might be considerably increased, e.g.: nip|ra` (are unruly), Prov 29:18, Kal 13:18; 15:32; 'aats (he that hastens), 19:2; 21:5; 28:20; 29:19; mid|waaniym (of contentions), 21:9 (25:24), 21:19; 23:29; 26:21; 27:25. If it may be regarded as a striking fact that the figures of speech chayiym m|qowr (a fountain of life), 10:11; 13:14; 14:27; 17:22, and chayiym `eets (a tree of life), 11:30; 13:12; 15:4, as also the expressions m|chitaah (destruction), 10:14-15; 13:3; 14:28; 18:7; 10:29; 21:15, yaapiyach (he uttereth), 12:17; 14:5,25; 19:5,9; cileep (perverteth), 13:6; 19:3; 21:12; 22:12, and celep (perverseness), 11:3; 15:4, are only to be found in the first collection, and not in that by the "men of Hezekiah," it is not a decisive evidence against the oneness of the origin of the proverbs in both collections.

The fact also, properly brought forward by Ewald, that proverbs which begin with yeesh (there is)-e.g., Prov 11:24, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth still,"-are exclusively found in the first collection, need not perplex us; it is one peculiar kind of proverbs which the author of this collection has by preference gathered together, as he has also omitted all parabolic proverbs except these two, 10:26; 11:22. If proverbs beginning with ysh are found only in the first, so on the other hand the parabolic Vav and the proverbial perfect, reporting as it were an experience (cf. in the second collection, besides 26:13; 27:12; 29:13, also 28:1; 29:9), for which Döderlein (Note: Reden u. Aufsätze, ii. 316.) has invented the expression aoristus gnomicus, (Note: A similar thing is found among German proverbs, e.g.: Wer nicht mitsass, auch nicht mitass (Whoso sat not, ate not).) are common to both sentences. Another remark of Ewald's (Jahrb. xi. 28), that extended proverbs with 'iysh are exclusively found in the Hezekiah-collection (Prov 29:9,3; 25:18,28), is not fully established; in 16:27-29 three proverbs with 'iysh are found together, and in 20:6 as well as in 29:9 'iysh occurs twice in one proverb. Rather it strikes us that the article, not merely the punctatorially syncopated, but that expressed by h, occurs only twice in the first collection, in 20:1; 21:31; oftener in the second, 26:14,18; 27:19-20,22. Since, however, the first does not wholly omit the article, this also cannot determine us to reject the linguistic unity of the second collection with the first, at least according to their primary stock.

But also what of the linguistic unity of Prov 1-9 with both of these, maintained by Keil? It is true, and merits all consideration, that a unity of language and of conception between 1-9 and 10-22:16 which far exceeds the degree of unity between 10-22:16 and 25-29 may be proved. The introduction is bound with the first collection in the closest manner by the same use of such expressions as 'aagar (gathereth), 6:8; 10:5; 'iyshown (the middle, i.e., of the night, deep darkness), 7:9; 20:20; 'achariyt (the end), 5:4; 23:18; 24:14; 'ak|zaariy (fierce), 5:9; 17:11; biynaah (understanding), 1:2; 16:16; t|buwnaah (understanding), 2:6; 3:19; 21:30; zaaraah (an adulteress), 5:3; 22:14; 23:33; leeb chacar (lacking understanding), 6:32; 7:7; 12:11; leqach yowcep (will increase learning), 1:5; 9:9; 16:21,23; yaapiyach (uttereth), 6:19; 14:5; 19:5,9; naalowz (perverted), 3:32; 14:2; m|daaniym (contention), 6:14,19; 10:12; mar|pee' (health), Prov 4:22; 12:18; 13:17; 16:24 (deliverance, 29:1); nicach (are plucked up), 2:22; 15:25; yinaaqeh lo' (shall not be unpunished), 6:29; 11:21; 16:5; hee`eez (strengthened, i.e., the face), 7:13; 21:29; chayiym `eets (tree of life), 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4; `aarab (becometh surety) and taaqa` (striketh hands) occurring together, 6:1; 17:18; 22:26; p|taayim and p|taa'iym (simplicity, folly), 1:22,32; 8:5; 9:6; 23:3; qaarats (to wink with the eyes), 6:13; 10:10; qeret (a city), 8:3; 9:3,14; 11:11; ree'shiyt (the beginning), 1:7; 17:14; Towb seekel (good understanding), 3:4; 13:15; yish|k|nuw-'aarets (shall dwell in the land), 2:21; 10:30; maadown shilach (sendeth forth strife), 6:14; 16:28; tah|pukowt (evil words), 2:12; 6:14; 10:31; 16:28; towraah (instruction), 1:8; 3:1; 4:2; 7:2; 13:14; tuwshiyaah (counsel), 3:21; 8:14; 18:1; tach|buwlowt (prudent measures), 1:5; 20:18; 24:6;-and these are not the only points of contact between the two portions which an attentive reader will meet with.

This relation of Prov 1-9 to 10-22:16 is a strong proof of the internal unity of that portion, which Bertheau has called in question. But are we therefore to conclude, with Keil, that the introduction is not less of the old time of Solomon than 10-22:16? Such a conclusion lies near, but we do not yet reach it. For with these points of contact there are not a few expressions exclusively peculiar to the introduction;-the expressions m|zimaah sing. (counsel), 1:4; 3:21; `aar|maah (prudence), 1:4; 8:5,12; m|liytsaah (an enigma, obscure maxim), 1:6; ma`|gaal (a path of life), 2:9; 4:11,26; ma`|gaalaah, 2:15,18; 5:6,21; 'iyshown (the apple of the eye), 7:2,9; gar|g|rowt (the throat), 1:9; 3:3,22; the verbs 'aatah (cometh), 1:27, pileec (make level or plain), 4:26; 5:6,21, and saaTaah (deviate), 4:15; 7:25.

Peculiar to this section is the heaping together of synonyms in close connection, as "congregation" and "assembly," Prov 5:14, "lovely hind" and "pleasant roe," 5:19; cf. 5:11; 6:7; 7:9; 8:13,31. This usage is, however, only a feature in the characteristic style of this section altogether different from that of 10:1-22:16, as well as from that of 25-29, of its disjointed diffuse form, delighting in repetitions, abounding in synonymous parallelism, even to a repetition of the same words (cf. e.g., 6:2), which, since the linguistic and the poetic forms are here inseparable, we have already spoken of in the second part of our introductory dissertation. This fundamental diversity in the whole condition of the section, notwithstanding those numerous points of resemblance, demands for 1-9 an altogether different author from Solomon, and one who is more recent.

If we hold by this view, then these points of resemblance between the sections find the most satisfactory explanation. The gifted author of the introduction (Prov 1-9) has formed his style, without being an altogether slavish imitator, on the Solomonic proverbs. And why, then, are his parallels confined almost exclusively to the section 10:1-22:16, and do not extend to 25-29? Because he edited the former and not the latter, and took pleasure particularly in the proverbs which he placed together, 10:1-22:16.

Not only are expressions of this section, formed by himself, echoed in his poetry, but the latter are for the most part formed out of germs supplied by the former. One may regard 19:27, cf. 27:11, as the germ of the admonitory addresses to the son, and 14:1 as the occasion of the allegory of the wise and the foolish woman,9.

Generally, the poetry of this writer has its hidden roots in the older writings. Who does not hear, to mention only one thing, in Prov 1:7-9:18 an echo of the old shm` (hear), Deut 6:4-9, cf. Prov 11:18-21? The whole poetry of this writer savours of the Book of Deuteronomy. The admonitory addresses Deut 1:7-9:18 are to the Book of Proverbs what Deuteronomy is to the Pentateuch. As Deuteronomy seeks to bring home and seal upon the heart of the people the towraah of the Mosaic law, so do they the towraah of the Solomonic proverbs.

We now further inquire whether, in the style of the two supplements, Prov 22:27-24:22 and 24:23ff., it is proved that the former concludes the Book of Proverbs edited by the author of the general introduction, and that the latter was added by a different author at the same time with the Hezekiah-collection. Bertheau placed both supplements together, and attributes the introduction to them, 22:17-21, to the author of the general introduction, 1:7-9. From the fact that in v. 19 of this lesser introduction ("I have taught thee, 'ap-'aataah, even thee") the pronoun is as emphatically repeated as in 23:15 (gam-'aaniy libiy, cf. 23:14,19), and that naa`iym (sweet), 22:18, also occurs in the following proverbs, 23:8; 24:4, I see no ground for denying it to the author of the larger general introduction, since, according to Bertheau's own just observation, the linguistic form of the whole collection of proverbs has an influence on the introduction of the collector; with more justice from shaaliyshiym , 22:20 only in Kerî, as the title of honour given to the collection of proverbs, compared with n|giydiym , 8:6, may we argue for the identity of the authorship of both introductions.

As little can the contemporaneousness of the two supplements be shown from the use of the pronoun, Prov 24:32, the leeb shiyt (animum advertere, 24:32), and yin|`aam (shall be delight) 24:25, for these verbal points of contact, if they proved anything, would prove too much: not only the contemporaneousness of the two supplements, but also the identity of their authorship; but in this case one does not see what the superscription lachakaamiym gam-'eeleh (these also of the wise men), separating them, means. Moreover, 24:33f. are from 6:10f., and nearer than the comparison of the first supplement lies the comparison of yn`m with 2:10; 9:17, leeb chacar 'aadaam (a man lacking understanding) with 17:18, yiz|`aamuwhuw with 22:14-points of contact which, if an explanatory reason is needed, may be accounted for from the circumstance that to the author or authors of the proverbs 24:23ff. the Book of Prov 1:1-24:22 may have been perfectly familiar.

From imitation also the points of contact of Prov 22:17-24:22 may easily be explained; for not merely the lesser introduction, the proverbs themselves also in part strikingly agree with the prevailing language of 1-9: cf. baderek| 'asheer (go straight forward in the way), 23:19, with 4:14; chaak|mowt (wisdom), 24:7, with 1:20; 9:1; and several others. But if, according to 1:7, we conceive of the older Book of Proverbs as accompanied with, rather than as without chakaamiym dib|reey (words of wise men), then from the similarity of the two superscriptions 24:23; 25:1, it is probable that the more recent half of the canonical book begins with 24:23, and we cannot therefore determine to regard 24:23ff. also as a component part of the older Book of Proverbs; particularly since 24:23b is like 28:21a, and the author of the introduction can scarcely have twice taken into his book the two verses 24:33f., which moreover seem to stand in their original connection at 6:10f.

The supplements to the Hezekiah-collection, 30f., are of so peculiar a form, that it will occur to no one (leaving out of view such expressions as q|doshiym da`at , knowledge of the Holy, Prov 30:3, cf. 9:10) to ascribe them to one of the authors of the preceding proverbs. We content ourselves here with a reference to Mühlau's work, De Proverbiorum quae dicuntur Aguri et Lemuelis origine atque indole, 1869, where the Aramaic-Arabic colouring of this in all probability foreign section is closely investigated.

Having thus abundantly proved that the two groups of proverbs bearing the inscription sh|lomoh mish|leey are, as to their primary stock, truly old-Solomonic, though not without an admixture of imitations; that, on the contrary, the introduction, Prov 1:7-9:18, as well as the chkmym dbry, 22:17-24 and 30f., are not at all old-Solomonic, but belong to the editor of the older Book of Proverbs, which reaches down to 24:22, so that thus the present book of the poetry of Solomon contains united with it the poems of the older editor, and besides of other poets, partly unknown Israelites, and partly two foreigners particularly named, Agur and Lemuel; we now turn our attention to the DOCTRINAL CONTENTS of the work, and ask whether a manifoldness in the type of instruction is noticeable in it, and whether there is perceptible in this manifoldness a progressive development. It may be possible that the Proverbs of Solomon, the Words of the Wise, and the Proverbial poetry of the editor, as they represent three eras, so also represent three different stages in the development of proverbial poetry. However, the Words of the Wise 22:17-24 are so internally related to the Proverbs of Solomon, that even the sharpest eye will discover in them not more than the evening twilight of the vanishing Solomonic Mashal. There thus remain on the one side only the Proverbs of Solomon with their echo in the Words of the Wise, on the other the Proverbial Poems of the editor; and these present themselves as monuments of two sharply defined epochs in the progressive development of the Mashal.

The common fundamental character of the book in all its parts is rightly defined when we call it a Book of Wisdom. Indeed, with the Church Fathers not only the Book of Sirach and the Solomonic Apocrypha, but also this Book of Proverbs bears this title, which seems also to have been in use among the Jews, since Melito of Sardes adds to the title "Proverbs of Solomon," hee kai' Sofi'a ; since, moreover, Eusebius (H.

E. iv. 22) affirms, that not only Hegesippus and Irenaeus, but the whole of the ancients, called the Proverbs of Solomon Pana'retos Sofi'a. (Note: This name meaning "wisdom, including all virtue", there are many things to show, was common in Palestine. The Jerusalem Talmud, in a passage quoted by Krochmal, Kerem Chemed, v. 79, divides the canon into twrh, nbw'h, and hkmh. Rashi, in Baba bathra, 14b, calls Mishle (Proverbs) and Koheleth (Ecclesiastes) chkmh cpry.

The Book of Koheleth is called (b. Megilla, 7a), according to its contents, shlmh shl chmtw. The Song bears in the Syriac version (the Peshito) the inscription chekmetho dechekmotho.)

It is also worthy of observation that it is called by Dionysius of Alexandria hee sofee' bi'blos, and by Gregory of Nazianzum hee paidagoogikee' sofi'a. These names not only express praise of the book, but they also denote at the same time the circle of human intellectual activity from which it emanated. As the books of prophecy are a product of the n|buw'aah , so the Book of the Proverbs is a product of the chaak|maah , sofi'a , the human effort to apprehend the objective sofi'a , and thus of filosofi'a , or the studium sapientiae.

It has emanated from the love of wisdom, to incite to the love of wisdom, and to put into the possession of that which is the object of love-for this end it was written. We need not hesitate, in view of Col 2:8, to call the Book of Proverbs a "philosophical" treatise, since the origin of the name filosofi'a is altogether noble: it expresses the relativity of human knowledge as over against the absoluteness of the divine knowledge, and the possibility of an endlessly progressive advancement of the human toward the divine.

The characteristic ideas of a dialectic development of thought and of the formation of a scientific system did not primarily appertain to it-the occasion for this was not present to the Israelitish people: it required fructification through the Japhetic spirit to produce philosophers such as Philo, Maimonides, and Spinoza. But philosophy is everywhere present when the natural, moral, positive, is made the object of a meditation which seeks to apprehend its last ground, its legitimate coherence, its true essence and aim. In the view C. B. Michaelis, in his Adnotationes uberiores in Hagiographa, passes from the exposition of the Psalms to that of the Proverbs with the words, "From David's closet, consecrated to prayer, we now pass into Solomon's school of wisdom, to admire the greatest of philosophers in the son of the greatest of theologians." (Note: "In hoc genere," says Lord Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum, viii. 2, "nihil invenitur, quod ullo modo comparandum sit cum aphorismis illis, quos edidit rex Salomon, de quo testatur Scriptura, cor illi fuisse instar arenae maris. Sicut enim arenae maris universas orbis oras circumdant, ita et sapientia ejus omnia humana non minus quam divina complexa est. In aphorismis vero illis praeter alia magis theologica reperies liquido haud pauca praecepta et monita civilia praestantissima, ex profundis quidem sapientiae penetralibus scaturientia atque in amplissimum varietatis campum excurrentia."

Accordingly, in the same work Bacon calls the Proverbs of Solomon "insignes parabolas s. aphorismos de divina atque morali philosophia.") When we give the name filosofi'a to the tendency of mind to which the Book of Proverbs belongs, we do not merely use a current scientific word, but there is an actual internal relation of the Book of Proverbs to that which is the essence of philosophy, which Scripture recognises (Acts 17:27, cf. Rom 1:19f.) as existing within the domain of heathendom, and which stamps it as a natural produce of the human spirit, which never can be wanting where a human being or a people rises to higher selfconsciousness and its operations in their changing relation to the phenomena of the external world. The mysteries of the world without him and of the world within him give man no rest, he must seek to solve them; and whenever he does that, he philosophizes, i.e., he strives after a knowledge of the nature of things, and of the laws which govern them in the world of phenomena and of events; on which account also Josephus, referring to Solomon's knowledge of nature, says (Ant. viii. 2. 5), oudemi'an tou'toon fu'sin eegno'eesen oude' paree'lthen anexe'taston all' en pa'sais efiloso'feesen. Cf. Irenaeus, Cont. Her. iv. 27. 1: eam quae est in conditione (kti'sei ) sapientiam Dei exponebat physiologice.

The historical books show us how much the age of Solomon favoured philosophical inquiries by its prosperity and peace, its active and manifold commercial intercourse with foreign nations, its circle of vision extending to Tarshish and Ophir, and also how Solomon himself attained to an unequalled elevation in the extent of his human and secular knowledge. We also read of some of the wise men in 1 Kings 5:11, cf. Ps 88-89, who adorned the court of the wisest of kings; and the maashaal , which became, through his influence, a special branch of Jewish literature, is the peculiar poetic form of the chaak|maah . Therefore in the Book of Proverbs we find the name chakaamiym dib|reey (words of the wise) used for m|shaaliym (proverbs); and by a careful consideration of all the proverbs in which mention is made of the chakaamiym , one will convince himself that this name has not merely a common ethical sense, but begins to be the name of those who made wisdom, i.e., the knowledge of things in the depths of their essence, their special lifework, and who connected themselves together in oneness of sentiment and fellowship into a particular circle within the community.

To this conclusion we are conducted by such proverbs as Prov 13:20- He that walketh with wise men becomes wise, And whoever has intercourse with fools is destroyed; 15:12-- The scorner loveth not that one reprove him:

To wise men he goeth not;- and by the contrast, which prevails in the Book of Proverbs, between leets (mocker) and chaakaam (wise), in which we see that, at the same time with the striving after wisdom, scepticism also, which we call free thought, obtained a great ascendency in Israel. Mockery of religion, rejection of God in principle and practice, a casting away of all fear of Jahve, and in general of all deisidaimoni'a , were in Israel phenomena which had already marked the times of David. One may see from the Psalms that the community of the Davidic era is to be by no means regarded as furnishing a pattern of religious life: that there were in it gowyim (Gentile nations) which were in no way externally inferior to them, and that it did not want for rejecters of God. But it is natural to expect that in the Solomonic era, which was more than any other exposed to the dangers of sensuality and worldliness, and of religious indifference and free-thinking latitudinarianism, the number of the leetsiym increased, and that scepticism and mockery became more intensified.

The Solomonic era appears to have first coined the name of leets for those men who despised that which was holy, and in doing so laid claim to wisdom (Prov 14:6), who caused contention and bitterness when they spake, and carefully avoided the society of the chkmym, because they thought themselves above their admonitions (15:12). For in the psalms of the Davidic time the word naabaal is commonly used for them (it occurs in the Proverbs only in 17:21, with the general meaning of low fellow, Germ. Bube), and the name leets is never met with except once, in Ps 1:1, which belongs to the post-Davidic era. One of the Solomonic proverbs (Prov 21:24) furnishes a definite idea of this newly formed word: An inflated arrogant man they call a scorner (leets), One who acts in the superfluity of haughtiness.

By the self-sufficiency of his ungodly thoughts and actions he is distinguished from the petiy (simple), who is only misled, and may therefore be reclaimed, Prov 19:25; 21:11; by his non-recognition of the Holy in opposition to a better knowledge and better means and opportunities, he is distinguished from the k|ciyl (foolish, stupid), 17:16, the 'ewiyl (foolish, wicked), 1:7; 7:22, and the leeb chacar (the void of understanding), 6:32, who despise truth and instruction from want of understanding, narrowness, and forgetfulness of God, but not from perverse principle.

This name specially coined, the definition of it given (cf. also the similarly defining proverb Prov 24:8), and in general the rich and fine technical proverbs in relation to the manifold kinds of wisdom (biynaah , 16:16; muwcar , 1:8; t|buwnowt , 21:30; m|zimowt , 5:2; tach|buwlowt , 1:5; 12:5; the tuwshiyaah first coined by the Chokma, etc.), of instruction in wisdom (leqach , 1:5; towraah , 4:2; 6:23; raa`aah , to tend to a flock, to instruct, 10:21; chanok| , 22:6; howkeeach , 15:12; n|paashowt laaqach , to win souls, 6:25; 11:30), of the wise men themselves (chaakaam , 12:15; naabown , 10:13; mowkiyach , a reprover, preacher of repentance, 25:12, etc.), and of the different classes of men (among whom also 'acharay 'aadaam , one who steps backwards retrograder, 28:23)-all this shows that chaak|maah was at that time not merely the designation of an ethical quality, but also the designation of a science rooted in the fear of God to which many noble men in Israel then addicted themselves.

Jeremiah places (Jer 18:18) the chaakaam along with the koheen (priest) and naabiy' (prophet); and if Ezek 7:26) uses zaaqeen (old man) instead of chaakaam , yet by reference to Job 12:12 this may be understood. In his "Dissertation on the popular and intellectual freedom of Israel from the time of the great prophets to the first destruction of Jerusalem" (Jahrbücher, i. 96f.), Ewald says, "One can scarcely sufficiently conceive how high the attainment was which was reached in the pursuit after wisdom (philosophy) in the first centuries after David, and one too much overlooks the mighty influence it exerted on the entire development of the national life of Israel. The more closely those centuries are inquired into, the more are we astonished at the vast power which wisdom so early exerted on all sides as the common object of pursuit of many men among the people. It first openly manifested itself in special circles of the people, while in the age after Solomon, which was peculiarly favourable to it, eagerly inquisitive scholars gathered around individual masters, until ever increasing schools were formed. But its influence gradually penetrated all the other pursuits of the people, and operated on the most diverse departments of authorship." We are in entire sympathy with this historical view first advanced by Ewald, although we mut frequently oppose the carrying of it out in details. The literature and the national history of Israel are certainly not understood if one does not take into consideration, along with the n|buw'aah (prophecy), the influential development of the chaak|maah as a special aim and subject of intellectual activity in Israel.

And how was this Chokma conditioned-to what was it directed? To denote its condition and aim in one word, it was universalistic, or humanistic. Emanating from the fear or the religion of Jahve (h' derek| , the way of the Lord, Prov 10:29), but seeking to comprehend the spirit in the letter, the essence in the forms of the national life, its effort was directed towards the general truth affecting mankind as such. While prophecy, which is recognised by the Chokma as a spiritual power indispensable to a healthful development of a people (`aam yipaara` chaazown b|'eeyn , 29:18), is of service to the historical process into which divine truth enters to work out its results in Israel, and from thence outward among mankind, the Chokma seeks to look into the very essence of this truth through the robe of its historical and national manifestation, and then to comprehend those general ideas in which could already be discovered the fitness of the religion of Jahve for becoming the world-religion.

From this aim towards the ideal in the historical, towards the everlasting same amid changes, the human (I intentionally use this word) in the Israelitish, the universal religion in the Jahve-religion (Jahvetum), and the universal morality in the Law, all the peculiarities of the Book of Proverbs are explained, as well as of the long, broad stream of the literature of the Chokma, beginning with Solomon, which, when the Palestinian Judaism assumed the rugged, exclusive, proud national character of Pharisaism, developed itself in Alexandrinism. Bertheau is amazed that in the Proverbs there are no warnings given against the worship of idols, which from the time of the kings gained more and more prevalence among the Israelitish people. "How is it to be explained," he asks (Spr. p. xlii.), "if the proverbs, in part at least, originated during the centuries of conflict between idolatry and the religion of Jahve, and if they were collected at a time in which this conflict reached its climax and stirred all ranks of the people-this conflict against the immorality of the Phoenician-Babylonian religion of nature, which must often have led into the same region of the moral contemplation of the world over which this book moves?!" The explanation lies in this, that the Chokma took its stand-point in a height and depth in which it had the mingling waves of international life and culture under it and above it, without being internally moved thereby.

It naturally did not approve of heathenism, it rather looked upon the fear of Jahve as the beginning of wisdom, and the seeking after Jahve as implying the possession of all knowledge (Prov 28:5, cf. 1 John 2:20); but it passed over the struggle of prophecy against heathendom, it confined itself to its own function, viz., to raise the treasures of general religiousmoral truth in the Jahve-religion, and to use them for the ennobling of the Israelites as men. In vain do we look for the name yis|raa'eel in the Proverbs, even the name towraah has a much more flexible idea attached to it than that of the law written at Sinai (cf. Prov 28:4; 29:18 with 28:7; 13:14, and similar passages); prayer and good works are placed above sacrifice, 15:8; 21:3,27-practical obedience to the teaching if wisdom above all, 28:9.

The Proverbs refer with special interest to Gen 1 and 2, the beginnings of the world and of the human race before nations took their origin. On this primitive record in the book of Genesis, to speak only of the sh|lomoh mish|leey , the figure of the tree of life (perhaps also of the fountain of life), found nowhere else in the Old Testament, leans; on it leans also the contrast, deeply pervading the Proverbs, between life (immortality, Prov 12:28) and death, or between that which is above and that which is beneath (15:24); on it also many other expressions, such, e.g., as what is said in 20:27 of the "spirit of man." This also, as Stier (Der Weise ein König, 1849, p. 240) has observed, accounts for the fact that 'aadaam occurs by far most frequently in the Book of Job and in the Solomonic writings. All these phenomena are explained from the general human universal aim of the Chokma.

When James (James 3:17) says that the "wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy," his words most excellently designate the nature and the contents of the discourse of wisdom in the Solomonic proverbs, and one is almost inclined to think that the apostolic brother of the Lord, when he delineates wisdom, has before his eyes the Book of the Proverbs, which raises to purity by the most impressive admonitions. Next to its admonitions to purity are those especially to peacefulness, to gentle resignation (Prov 14:30), quietness of mind (14:33) and humility (11:2; 15:33; 16:5,18), to mercy (even toward beasts, 12:10), to firmness and sincerity of conviction, to the furtherance of one's neighbour by means of wise discourse and kind help.

What is done in the Book of Deuteronomy with reference to he law is continued here. As in Deuteronomy, so here, love is at the bottom of its admonitions, the love of God to men, and the love of men to one another in their diverse relations (Deut 12:2; 15:9); the conception of ts|daaqaah gives way to that of charity, of almsgiving (dikaiosu'nee = eleeemosu'nee ). Forgiving, suffering love (Prov 10:12), love which does good even to enemies (25:21f.), rejoices not over the misfortune that befalls an enemy (24:17f.), retaliates not (24:28f.), but commits all to God (20:22)-love in its manifold forms, as that of husband and wife, of children, of friends-is here recommended with New Testament distinctness and with deepest feeling. Living in the fear of God (28:14), the Omniscient (15:3,11; 16:2; 21:2; 24:11f.), to whom as the final Cause all is referred (20:12,24; 14:31; 22:2), and whose universal plan all must subserve (16:4; 19:21; 21:30), and on the other side active pure love to man-these are the hinges on which all the teachings of wisdom in the Proverbs turn.

Frederick Schlegel, in the fourteenth of his Lectures on the History of Literature, distinguishes, not without deep truth, between the historicoprophetic books of the Old Testament, or books of the history of redemption, and the Book of Job, the Psalms, and the Solomonic writings, as books of aspiration, corresponding to the triple chord of faith, hope, charity as the three stages of the inner spiritual life. The Book of Job is designed to support faith amid trials; the Psalms breathe forth and exhibit hope amid the conflicts of earth's longings; the Solomonic writings reveal to us the mystery of the divine love, and the Proverbs that wisdom which grows out of and is itself eternal love. When Schlegel in the same lecture says that the books of the Old Covenant, for the most part, stand under the signature of the lion as the element of the power of will and spirited conflict glowing in divine fire, but that in the inmost hidden kernel and heart of the sacred book the Christian figure of the lamb rises up out of the veil of this lion strength, this may specially be said of the Book of Proverbs, for here that same heavenly wisdom preaches, which, when manifested in person, spake in the Sermon on the Mount, New Testament love in the midst of the Old Testament.

It is said that in the times before Christ there was a tendency to apocryphize not only the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes, but also the Book off Proverbs, and that for the first time the men of the Great Synagogue established their canonicity on the ground of their spiritual import; they became perplexed about the Proverbs, according to b.

Sabbath, 30b, on account of such self-contradictory proverbs as Prov 26:4- 5, and according to Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan, c. 1, on account of such secular portions as that of the wanton woman,7. But there is no need to allegorize this woman, and that self- contradiction is easily explained. The theopneustic character of the book and its claim to canonicity show themselves from its integral relation to the Old Testament preparation for redemption; but keeping out of view the book as a whole, it is self-evident that the conception of a practical proverb such as 14:4 and of a prophecy such as Isa 7:14 are very different phenomena of the spiritual life, and that in general the operation of the Divine Spirit in a proverb is different from that in a prophecy.

We have hitherto noted the character of the instruction set forth in the Proverbs according to the marks common to them in all their parts, but in such a way that we have taken our proofs only from the "Proverbs of Solomon" and the "Words of the Wise," with the exclusion of the introductory proverbial poems of the older editor. If we compare the two together, it cannot be denied that in the type of the instruction contained in the latter, the Chokma, of which the book is an emanation and which it has as its aim (chaak|maah laada`at , Prov 1:2), stands before us in proportionally much more distinctly defined comprehension and form; we have the same relation before us whose adumbration is the relation of the instruction of wisdom in the Avesta and in the later Minochired (Spiegel, Parsi-Grammatik, p. 182ff.).

The Chokma appears also in the "Proverbs of Solomon" as a being existing in and for itself, which is opposed to ambiguous subjective thought (Prov 28:26); but here there is attributed to it an objectivity even to an apparent personality: it goes forth preaching, and places before all men life and death for an eternally decisive choice, it distributes the spirit of those who do not resist (1:23), it receives and answers prayer (1:28). The speculation regarding the Chokma is here with reference to Job 28 (cf. Prov 2:4; 3:14f., 8:11,19), and particularly to 28:27, where a demiurgic function is assigned to wisdom, carried back to its source in eternity: it is the medium by which the world was created, 3:19; it was before the creation of the world with God as from everlasting, His son of royal dignity, 8:22-26; it was with Him in His work of creation, 8:27-30; after the creation it remained as His delight, rejoicing always before Him, and particularly on the earth among the sons of men, 8:30f.

Staudenmaier (Lehre von der Idee, p. 37) is certainly not on the wrong course, when under this rejoicing of wisdom before God he understands the development of the ideas or life-thoughts intimately bound up in it-the world-idea. This development is the delight of God, because it represents to the divine contemplation of the contents of wisdom, or of the worldidea founded in the divine understanding, in all its activities and inner harmonies; it is a calm delight, because the divine idea unites with the fresh and every young impulse of life, the purity, goodness, innocence, and holiness of life, because its spirit is light, clear, simple, childlike, in itself peaceful, harmonious, and happy; and this delight is experienced especially on the earth among the sons of men, among whom wisdom has its delight; for, as the divine idea, it is in all in so far as it is the inmost life-thought, the soul of each being, but it is on the earth of men in whom it comes to its self-conception, and self-conscious comes forth into the light of the clear day.

Staudenmaier has done the great service of having worthily estimated the rich and deep fulness of this biblical theologumenon of wisdom, and of having pointed out in it the foundation-stone of a sacred metaphysics and a means of protection against pantheism in all its forms. We see that in the time of the editor of the older Book of Proverbs the wisdom of the schools in its devotion to the chosen object of its pursuit, the divine wisdom living and moving in all nature, and forming the background of all things, rises to a height of speculation on which it has planted a banner showing the right way to latest times. Ewald rightly points to the statements in the introduction to the Proverbs regarding wisdom as a distinct mark of the once great power of wisdom in Israel; for they show us how this power learned to apprehend itself in its own purest height, after it had become as perfect, and at the same time also as self-conscious, as it could at all become in ancient Israel.

Many other appearances also mark the advanced type of instruction contained in the introduction. Hitzig's view (Sprüche, p. xvii.f.), that Prov 1:6-9:18 are the part of the whole collection which was earliest written, confutes itself on all sides; on the contrary, the views of Bleek in his Introduction to the Old Testament, thrown out in a sketchy manner and as if by a diviner, surprisingly agree with our own results, which have been laboriously reached and are here amply established. The advanced type of instruction in the introduction, 1-9, appears among other things in this, that we there find the allegory, which up to this place occurs in Old Testament literature only in scattered little pictures built up into independent poetic forms, particularly in 9, where without any contradiction k|ciyluwt 'eeshet a simple woman, 5:13 is an allegorical person.

The technical language of the Chokma has extended itself on many sides and been refined (we mention these synonyms: chaak|maah , da`at , biynaah , `aar|maah , m|zimaah , muwcaar , tuwshiyaah ); and the seven pillars in the house of wisdom, even though it be inadmissible to think of them as the seven liberal arts, yet point to a division into seven parts of which the poet was conscious to himself. The common address, b|niy my son, which is not the address of the father to the son, but of the teacher to the scholar, countenances the supposition that there were at that time chakaamiym b|neey , i.e., scholars of the wise men, just as there were "sons of the prophets" (n|bi'iym ), and probably also schools of wisdom. "And when it is described how wisdom spake aloud to the people in all the streets of Jerusalem, in the high places of the city and in every favourable place, does not one feel that such sublime descriptions could not be possible unless at that time wisdom were regarded by the people as one of the first powers, and the wise men truly displayed a great public activity?" We must answer this question of Ewald's in the affirmative.

Bruch, in his Weisheitslehre der Hebraer, 1851, was the first to call special attention to the Chokma or humanism as a peculiar intellectual tendency in Israel; but he is mistaken in placing it in an indifferent and even hostile relation to the national law and the national cultus, which he compares to the relation of Christian philosophy to orthodox theology. Oehler, in his Grundzüge der alttestamentl. Weisheit, which treats more especially of the doctrinal teachings of the Book of Job, judges more correctly; cf. also his comprehensive article, Pädagogik des A. T. in Schmid's Pädagogischer Encyclopädie, pp. 653-695 (partic. 677-683). 5. The Alexandrian Translation of the Book of Proverbs.-Of highest interest for the history of the Book of Proverbs is the relation of the LXX to the Hebrew text. One half of the proverbs of Agur (30 of the Hebrew text) are placed in it after Prov 24:22, and the other half after 24:34; and the proverbs of King Lemuel (31:1-9 of the Hebrew text) are placed after the proverbs of Agur, while the acrostic proverbial poem of the virtuous woman is in its place at the end of the book. That transposition reminds us of the transpositions in Jeremiah, and rests in the one place as well as in the other on a misunderstanding of the true contents. The translator has set aside the new superscription. 10:1, as unsuitable, and has not marked the new beginning, 22:17; he has expunged the new superscription, 24:23, and has done the same to the superscription, "The words of Agur" (30:1), in two awkward explanations (lo'gon fulasso'menos and tou's emou's lo'gous fobee'theeti ), and the superscription, "The words of Lemuel" (31:1), in one similar (ohi emoi' lo'gi ei'reentai hupo' Theou'), so that the proverbs of Agur and of Lemuel are without hesitation joined with those of Solomon, whereby it yet remains a mystery why the proverbs beginning with "The words of Agur" have been divided into two parts.

Hitzig explains it from a confounding of the columns in which, two being on each page, the Hebrew MS which lay before the translator was written, and in which the proverbs of Agur and of Lemuel (names which tradition understood symbolically of Solomon) were already ranked in order before ch. 25. But besides these, there are also many other singular things connected with this Greek translation interesting in themselves and of great critical worth. That it omits Prov 1:16 may arise from this, that this verse was not found in the original MS, and was introduced from Isa 59:7; but there are wanting also proverbs such as 21:5, for which no reason can be assigned. But the additions are disproportionately more numerous.

Frequently we find a line added to the distich, such as in Prov 1:18, or an entire distich added, as 3:15; or of two lines of the Hebrew verse, each is formed into a separate distich, as 1:7; 11:16; or we meet with longer interpolations, extending far beyond this measure, as that added to 4:27.

Many of these proverbs are easily re-translated into the Hebrew, as that added to 4:27, consisting of four lines: ky drky mymynym yd` yhwh w`qshym drky msm'ylym hw' yplc m`glwtyk 'rchwtyk bshlwm ytslych But many of them also sound as if they had been originally Greek; e.g., the lines appended to Prov 9:10; 13:15; the distich, 6:11; the imperfect tristich, 22:14; and the formless train, 25:10. The value of these enlargements is very diverse; not a few of these proverbs are truly thoughtful, such as the addition to 12:13- He who is of mild countenance findeth mercy; He who is litigious crushes souls and singularly bold in imagery, as the addition to 9:12- He who supports himself by lies hunts after (r`h) the wind, He catches at fluttering birds; For he forsakes the ways of his own vineyard, And wanders away from the paths of his own field, And roams through arid steppes and a thirsty land, And gathers with his hand withered heath.

The Hebrew text lying before the Alexandrian translators had certainly not all these additions, yet in many passages, such as Prov 11:16, it is indeed a question whether it is not to be improved from the LXX; and in other passages, where, if one reads the Greek, the Hebrew words naturally take their place, whether these are not at least old Hebrew marginal notes and interpolations which the translation preserves. But this version itself has had its gradual historical development. The text, the koinee' (communis), proceeds from the Hexaplar text edited by Origen, which received from him many and diverse revisions; and in the times before Christ, perhaps (as Hitz. supposes), down to the second century after Christ, the translation itself, not being regarded as complete, as in the progress of growth, for not unfrequently two different translations of one and the same proverb stand together, as 14:22; 29:25 (where also the Peshito follows the LXX after which it translates), or also interpenetrate one another, as 22:8-9. These doubled translations are of historical importance both in relation to the text and to the interpretation of it. Along with the Books of Samuel and Jeremiah, there is no book in regard to which the LXX can be of higher significance than the Book of Proverbs; we shall seek in the course of our exposition duly to estimate the text (Note: Cf. also J. Gottlob Jäger's Observationes in Proverbiorum Salomonis Versionem Alexandrinam, 1788; de Lagarde's Anmerkungen zur griech. Ueberstezung der Proverbien, 1863; M.

Heidenheim's Zur Textkritik der Proverbien, in his Quarterly Journal for German and English Theological Criticism and Investigation, No.

VIII (1865), and IX, XI (1866). The text of the LXX (cf. Angelo Mari's Classici Auctores, t. ix.) used by Procopius in his Hermeenei'a eis ta's paroimi'as is peculiar, and here and there comes near to the Hebrew original. The scholion of Evagrius in the Dcho'lia eis ta's paroimi'as of Origen, edited by Tischendorf in his Notitia, 1860, from a MS of Patmos, shows how soon even the Hexaplar text became ambiguous.) as adopted by Bertheau (1847) and Hitzig (1858) in their commentaries, and by Ewald in his Jahrb. xi. (1861) and his commentary (2nd ed. 1867).

The historical importance of the Egyptian text-recension is heightened by this circumstance, that the old Syrian translator of the Solomonic writings had before him not only the original text, but also the LXX; for the current opinion, that the Peshito, as distinguished from the Syro-Hexaplar version, sprang solely from the original text with the assistance of the Targum, is more and more shown to be erroneous. In the Book of Proverbs the relation of the Peshito and Targum is even the reverse; the Targum of the Proverbs, making use of the Peshito, restores the Masoretic text-the points of contact with the LXX showing themselves here and there, are brought about (Note: Cf. Dathe, De ratione consensus Versionis Syriacae el Chaldaicae Proverbiorum Salomonis (1764), edited by Rosenmüller in his Opuscula. Maybaum, in the Treatise on the Language of the Targum to the Proverbs and its relation to the Syriac, in Merx's Archiv, ii. 66-93, labours in vain to give the priority to that of the Targum: the Targum is written from the Peshito, and here and there approaches the Hebrew text; the language is, with few differences, the Syriac of the original.) by the Peshito. But that Jerome, in his translation of the Vulgate according to the Hebraea veritas, sometimes follows the LXX in opposition to the original text, is to be explained with Hitzig from the fact that he based his work on an existing Latin translation made from the LXX.

Hence it comes that the two distichs added in the LXX to Prov 4:27 remain in his work, and that instead of the one distich, 15:6, we have two:- In abundanti (after the phrase b|rob instead of beeyt of the Masoretic text) justitia virtus maxima est, cogitationes autem impiroum eradicabuntur. Domus (beeyt ) justi plurima fortitudo, et in fructibus impii conturbatio; for Jerome has adopted the two translations of the LXX, correcting the second according to the original text. (Note: The Ethiopic translation, also, is in particular points, as well as on the whole, dependent on the LXX, for it divides the Book of Proverbs into proverbs (paroimi'as ), 1-24, and instructions (paidei'ai ) of Solomon, 25-31. Vid., Dillmann in Ewald's Jahrb. v. 147, 150.)

The fragments of the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, etc., contained in Greek and Syrian sources, have been recently collected, more perfectly than could have been done by Montfaucon, by Fried. Field, in his work Origenis\ Hexaplorum quae supersunt,\ etc. (Oxonii, 1867, 4).

Of special interest is the more recent translation of the original text, existing only in a MS laid up in the Library of St. Mark at Venice, executed in bold language, rich in rare and newly invented words, by an unknown author, and belonging to an age which has not yet been determined (Graecus Venetus): cf. d'Ansse de Villoison's nova versio Graeca Proverbiorum, Ecclesiastis, Cantici Canticorum, etc., Argentorati, 1784; and also the Animadversiones thereto of Jo. Ge. Dahler, 1786.

The literature of the interpretation of the Book of Proverbs is found in Keil's Einleitung in das A. T. (1859), p. 346f. ((Manual of Historico- Critical Introduction to the Old Testament), translated by Professor Douglas, D. D., Free Church College, Glasgow. Edinburgh: T. T. Clark, Vol. i. p. 468f.). The most important of the older linguistic works on this book is the commentary of Albert Schultens (Lugduni Batavorum, 1748, 4), whose service to the cause of Semitic philology and O. T. exegesis Mühlau has brought to remembrance in the Lutheran Zeitschrift, 1870, 1; Vogel's abstract (Halae, 1769), prefaced by Semler, does not altogether compensate for the original work. From the school of Schultens, and also from that of Schröder, originate the Anmerkingen by Alb. Jac. Arnoldi, maternal grandson of Schultens, a Latin edition of which was published (Lugduni Bat. 1783) by Henr. Alb. Schultens, the grandson of Schultens by his son. Among the commentaries of English interpreters, that in Latin by Thomas Cartwright (Amstelredami, 1663, 4), along with the Exposition of the Book of Proverbs by Charles Bridges (4th ed., London, 1859), hold an honourable place.

The Critical Remarks on the Books of Job, Proverbs, etc., by D. Durell (Oxford, 1772, 4), also merit attention. Of more recent commentaries, since Keil gave his list of the literature of the subject, have been published those of Elster (1858) and of Zöckerl (1867), forming a part of the theologicohomiletical Bibelwerk edited by J. P. Lange. Chs. 25-29 Rud. Stier has specially interpreted in two works entitled Der Weise ein König "The Wise Man a king", and Salomonis Weisheit in Hiskiastagen "Solomon's Wisdom in the Days of Hezekiah", 1849; and chapters 30-31 in a work entitled Die Politik der Weisheit "The Politics of Wisdom", 1850. Part III (1865) of the new exegetico-critical Aehrenlese "Gleanings" of Fried.

Böttcher, edited by Mühlau, furnishes 39 pages of remarks on the Proverbs. Leop. Dukes, author of the Rabbinical Blumenlese "Anthology", 1844, and the Schrift zur rabbinischen Spruchkunde, 1851, has published (1841) a commentary to the Proverbs in Cahen's French Bibelwerk. There also is furnished a list of Jewish interpreters down to the appearance of L.

H. Loewenstein's Commentary (1838), which contains valuable contributions to the critical confirmation of the Masoretic text, in which Heidenheim's MS remains, and also the Codex of 1294 mentioned in my preface to Baer's edition of the Psalter, and in the Specimen Lectionum of Baer's edition of Genesis, are made use of. Among Malbim's best works are, after his Commentary on Isaiah, that on the Mishle (Warsaw, 1867). ((Vide) Preface.) (The following is a 'Note' occurring after the Commentary on the last chapter of Proverbs, ch.31, in Keil & Delitzsch) NOTE The Proverbs Peculiar to the Alexandrine Translation Note: In the LXX there are not a few proverbs which are not found in the Heb. text, of, 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 Prov 1:14,27; 2:2; 3:15; 4:10; 6:25b, 10:5; 11:16; 14:22; 15:6; 16:26; 23:31; 29:7b, 25; 31:29a. These duplicate translations are found sometimes at different places, e.g., 17:20b is duplicate to 17:16d; 19:15 is duplicate to 18:8; 22:9cd = 19:6b, 1:19b; 29:17 is duplicate to 28:17cd; or, according to the enumeration of the verses as it lies before us, not within the compass of one verse to which they belong: 22:8-9 is a duplicate translation of v. 8b and 9a of the Heb. text; 24:23; 30:1, a duplicate translation of 30:1; and 31:26-27b, of 31:26 of the Heb. text. (Note: 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.)

Everywhere, here, along with the translated proverb of our Heb. text, there is not an independent one. Also one has to be on his guard against seeing independent proverbs where the translator only, at his own will, modified one of the Heb. proverbs lying before us, as e.g., at Proverbs 10:10; 13:23; 19:7 , as he here and there lets his Alexandrine exegesis influence him, Proverbs 2:16 f., Proverbs 5:5; 9:6 , and adds explanatory clauses, Proverbs 2:19; 3:18; 5:3; 9:12 ; seldom fortunate in this, oftener, as at Proverbs 1:18,22,28; 9:12; 28:10 , showing by these interpolations his want of knowledge. There are also, in the translation, here and there passages introduced from some other part of Scripture, e.g.: 1:7ab = Ps. 111:10, LXX; 3:22cd = 3:8; 3:28c = 27:1b, 13:5c, from Psalms 112:5, cf.

Psalms 37:21; 16:1 (ho'soo me'gas k.t.l) = Sir. 3:18; 26:11cd = Sir. 4:21. A free reminiscence, such as Proverbs 16:17, may speak a certain independence, but not those borrowed passages.

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. (Note: These the translator has not printed, because, however interesting it may be to the student of the Hebrew language as such, to compare Delitzsch's renderings into Hebrew with the Greek original, as placed before him, they may be here omitted, inasmuch as all that is of importance on the subject, in an exegetical point of view, has been already embodied in the Commentary.)

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, e.g., Proverbs 17:19 stands as a proverb of only one line; the second forms a part of v. 16. As true defects, we have noticed the following proverbs and parts of proverbs: 1:16; 7:25b, 8:32b, 33; 9:3b, 4,10b, 18:8,23-24; 19:1-2,15; 21:5; 22:6; 23:23; 25:20a. All these proverbs and parts of proverbs of the Heb. text are wanting in the LXX.

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 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, 30-31:9, has it sidepiece in the separation of Jeremiah's proaemiums of the prophecies concerning the people, Jeremiah 25.

THE OLDER BOOK OF PROVERBS -- 1-24 Superscription and Motto, 1:1-7 PROVERBS 1:1-7 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; Verse 1-7. The external title, i.e., the Synagogue name, of the whole collection of Proverbs is mish|leey (Mishle), the word with which it commences. Origen (Euseb. h. e. vi. 25) uses the name Eisloo'th, i.e., m|shaalowt, which occurs in the Talmud and Midrash as the designation of the book, from its contents. In a similar way, the names given to the Psalter, t|hiliym and t|hilowt , are interchanged.

This external title is followed by one which the Book of Proverbs, viewed as to its gradual formation, and first the older portion, gives to itself. It reaches from Prov 1:1 to v. 6, and names not only the contents and the author of the book, but also commends it in regard to the service which it is capable of rendering. It contains "Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel." The books of the nbw'h and chkmh, including the Canticles, thus give their own titles; among the historical books, that of the memoirs of Nehemiah is the only one that does so. mish|leey has the accent Dechî, to separate (Note: Norzi has erroneously accented msly with the accent Munach.

The m is besides the Masoretic majusculum, like the b, sh , and ' at the commencement of the Law, the Canticles, and Chronicles.) it from the following complex genitive which it governs, and yis|raa'eel melek| is made the second hemistich, because it belongs to sh|lomoh , not to daawid . (Note: If it had belonged to dwd , then the sentence would have been accented thus: ysr'l mlk bn-dwd slmh mshly.)

As to the fundamental idea of the word maashaal , we refer to the derivation given in the Gesch. der jud. Poesie, p. 196, from maashal , Aram. m|tal, root tl, Sanskr. tul (whence tulâ, balance, similarity), Lat. tollere; the comparison of the Arab. mathal leads to the same conclusion. "maashaal signifies, not, as Schultens and others after him affirm, effigies ad similitudinem alius rei expressa, from maashal in the primary signification premere, premente manu tractare; for the corresponding Arab. verb mathal does not at all bear that meaning, but signifies to stand, to present oneself, hence to be like, properly to put oneself forth as something, to represent it; and in the Hebr. also to rule, properly with `al to stand on or over something, with b| to hold it erect, like Arab. kam with b, rem administravit \vid. Jesaia, p. 691]. Thus e.g., Gen 24:2, it is said of Eliezer: b|kaal-'asher-low hamosheel, who ruled over all that he (Abraham) had (Luther: was a prince over all his goods).

Thus maashaal , figurative discourse which represents that which is real, similitude; hence then parable or shorter apothegm, proverb, in so far as they express primarily something special, but which as a general symbol is then applied to everything else of a like kind, and in so far stands figuratively.

An example is found in 1 Sam 10:11f. It is incorrect to conclude from this meaning of the word that such memorial sayings or proverbs usually contained comparisons, or were clothed in figurative language; for that is the case in by far the fewest number of instances: the oldest have by far the simplest and most special interpretations" (Fleischer). Hence Mashal, according to its fundamental idea, is that which stands with something = makes something stand forth = representing. This something that represents may be a thing or a person; as e.g., one may say Job is a Mashal, i.e., a representant, similitude, type of Israel (vide the work entitled hchyym `ts , by Ahron b. Elia, c. 90, p. 143); and, like Arab. mathal (more commonly mithl = meeshel, cf. m|shel , Job 41:25), is used quite as generally as is its etymological cogn. instar (instare). But in Hebr. Mashal always denotes representing discourse with the additional marks of the figurative and concise, e.g., the section which presents (Hab 2:6) him to whom it refers as a warning example, but particularly, as there defined, the gnome, the apothegm or maxim, in so far as this represents general truths in sharply outlined little pictures.

Verse 2. Now follows the statement of the object which these proverbs subserve; and first, in general, To become acquainted with wisdom and instruction, To understand intelligent discourses.

They seek on the one side to initiate the reader in wisdom and instruction, and on the other to guide him to the understanding of intelligent discourses, for they themselves contain such discourses in which there is a deep penetrating judgment, and they sharpen the understanding of him who engages his attention with them. (Note: laada`at is rightly pointed by Löwenstein with Dechî after Cod. 1294; vide the rule by which the verse is divided, Torath Emeth, p. 51, §12.)

As Schultens has already rightly determined the fundamental meaning of yaada` , frequently compared with the Sanskr. vid, to know (whence by gunating, (Note: Guna = a rule in Sanskrit grammar regulating the modification of vowels.) vêda, knowledge), after the Arab. wad'a, as deponere, penes se condere, so he also rightly explains chaak|maah by soliditas; it means properly (from chaakam , Arab. hakm, R. hk, vide under Ps 10:8, to be firm, closed) compactness, and then, like pukno'tees , ability, worldly wisdom, prudence, and in the higher general sense, the knowledge of things in the essence of their being and in the reality of their existence. Along with wisdom stands the moral muwcaar , properly discipline, i.e., moral instruction, and in conformity with this, self-government, self-guidance, from yaacar = waacar, cogn. 'aacar , properly adstrictio or constrictio; for the m of the noun signifies both id quod or aliquid quod (ho' ti ) and quod in the conjunctional sense (ho'ti ), and thus forms both a concrete (like mowceer = mo'ceer, fetter, chain) and an abstract idea.

The first general object of the Proverbs is da`at , the reception into oneself of wisdom and moral edification by means of education and training; and second is to comprehend utterances of intelligence, i.e., such as proceed from intelligence and give expression to it (cf. 'emet 'im|reey , 232:21). biyn , Kal, to be distinguished (whence beeyn , between, constr. of bayin, space between, interval), signifies in Hiph. to distinguish, to understand; biynaah is, according to the sense, the n. actionis of this Hiph., and signifies the understanding as the capability effective in the possession of the right criteria of distinguishing between the true and the false, the good and the bad (1 Kings 3:9), the wholesome and the pernicious.

Verse 3-5. In the following, 2a is expanded in vv. 3-5, then 2b in v. 6. First the immediate object: 3 to attain intelligent instruction, Righteousness, and justice, and integrity; 4 To impart to the inexperienced prudence, To the young man knowledge and discretion 5 Let the wise man hear and gain learning, And the man of understanding take to himself rules of conduct.

With da`at , denoting the reception into oneself, acquiring, is interchanged (cf. Prov 2:1) qachat , its synonym, used of intellectual reception and appropriation, which, contemplated form the point of view of the relation between the teacher and the learner, is the correlative of teet , paradido'nai , tradere (9:9). But has|keel muwcar is that which proceeds from chokma and musar when they are blended together: discipline of wisdom, discipline training to wisdom; i.e., such morality and good conduct as rest not on external inheritance, training, imitation, and custom, but is bound up with the intelligent knowledge of the Why and the Wherefore. has|keel , as 21:16, is inf. absol. used substantively (cf. hash|qeeT , keeping quiet, Isa 32:17) of saakal (whence seekel , intellectus), to entwine, involve; for the thinking through a subject is represented as an interweaving, complicating, configuring of the thoughts (the syllogism is in like manner represented as 'esh|kol , Aram. c|gowl, a bunch of grapes), (with which also caakaal , a fool, and chic|kiyl, to act foolishly, are connected, from the confusion of the thoughts, the entangling of the conceptions; cf. Arab. 'akl, to understand, and m|`uqaal ).

The series of synonyms (cf. Prov 23:23) following in 3b, which are not well fitted to be the immediate object to laaqachat , present themselves as the unfolding of the contents of the has|keel muwcar , as meaning that namely which is dutiful and right and honest. With the frequently occurring two conceptions uwmish|paaT tsedeq (2:9), (or with the order reversed as in Ps 119:121) is interchanged uwts|daaqaah mish|paaT (or with the order also reversed, 21:3). The remark of Heidenheim, that in tsedeq the conception of the justum, and in ts|daaqaah that of the aequum prevails, is suggested by the circumstance that not tsedeq but ts|daaqaah signifies dikaiosu'nee (cf. Prov 10:2) in the sense of liberality, and then of almsgiving (eleeemosu'nee ); but tsedeq also frequently signifies a way of thought and action which is regulated not by the letter of the law and by talio, but by love (cf. Isa 41:2; 42:6). Tsedek and ts'dakah have almost the relation to one another of integrity and justice which practically brings the former into exercise. mish|paaT (from shaapaT , to make straight, to adjust, cf. shbT , Arab. sabita, to be smooth) is the right and the righteousness in which it realizes itself, here subjectively considered, the right mind. (Note: According to Malbim, mshpT is the fixed objective right, tsdq the righteousness which does not at once decide according to the letter of the law, but always according to the matter and the person.) meeshaariym (defect. for myshrym, from yaashar , to be straight, even) is plur. tantum; for its sing. meeyshaar (after the form meeyTaab ) the form miyshowr (in the same ethical sense, e.g., Mal 2:6) is used: it means thus a way of thought and of conduct that is straight, i.e., according to what is right, true, i.e., without concealment, honest, i.e., true to duty and faithful to one's word.

Verse 4. This verse presents another aspect of the object to be served by this book: it seeks to impart prudence to the simple. The form p|taa'yim (Note: Like `aapaa'yim , Ps 104:12, w|kits|baa'yim , Chron 12:8, cf. Michlol, 196a. In vv. 22, 32, the mute ' is wanting.) (in which, as in gowyim , the y plur. remains unwritten) is, in this mongrel form in which it is written (cf. Prov 7:7; 8:5; 9:6; 14:18; 27:12), made up of p|taayim (1:22,32, once written plene, p|taayiym , 22:3) and p|taa'iym (7:7). These two forms with y and the transition of y into ' are interchanged in the plur. of such nouns as p|tiy , segolate form, "from paataah (cogn. paatach ), to be open, properly the open-hearted, i.e., one whose heart stands open to every influence from another, the harmless, good-natured-a vox media among the Hebrews commonly (though not always, cf. e.g., Ps 116:6) in malam partem: the foolish, silly, one who allows himself to be easily persuaded or led astray, like similar words in other languages-Lat. simplex, Gr. euee'thees, Fr. naïv; Arab. fatyn, always, however, in a good sense: a high and noble-minded man, not made as yet mistrustful and depressed by sad experiences, therefore juvenis ingenuus, vir animi generosi" (Fl.). The p|taa'iym , not of firm and constant mind, have need of `aar|maah ; therefore the saying Prov 14:15, cf. 8:5; 19:25.

The noun `aar|maah (a fem. segolate form like chaak|maah ) means here calliditas in a good sense, while the corresponding Arab. 'aram (to be distinguished from the verb 'aram, `rm , to peel, to make bare, nudare) is used only in a bad sense, of malevolent, deceptive conduct. In the parallel member the word na`ar is used, generally (collectively) understood, of the immaturity which must first obtain intellectual and moral clearness and firmness; such an one is in need of peritia et sollertia, as Fleischer well renders it; for da`at is experimental knowledge, and m|zimaah (from zaamam , according to its primary signification, to press together, comprimere; then, referred to mental concentration: to think) signifies in the sing., sensu, bono, the capability of comprehending the right purposes, of seizing the right measures, of projecting the right plans.

Verse 5. In this verse the infinitives of the object pass into independent sentences for the sake of variety. That yish|ma` cannot mean audiet, but audiat, is shown by Prov 9:9; but w|yocep is jussive (with the tone thrown back before leqach ; cf. 10:8, and 16:21,23, where the tone is not thrown back, as also 2 Sam 24:3) with the consecutive Vav (w) (= Arab. f): let him hear, thus will he... or, in order that he. Whoever is wise is invited to hear these proverbs in order to add learning (doctrinam) to that which he already possesses, according to the principle derived from experience, Prov 9:9; Matt 13:12. The segolate leqach , which in pausa retains its e- as also beTach , yesha` , tsemach , melek| , tsedeq , qedem , and others), means reception, and concretely what one takes into himself with his ear and mind; therefore learning (didachee' with the object of the apodochee' ), as Deut 32:2 (parallel 'im|raah , as 4:2 towraah ), and then learning that has passed into the possession of the receiver, knowledge, science (Isa 29:24, parall. biynaah ).

Schultens compares the Arab. lakah, used of the fructification of the female palm by the flower-dust of the male. The part. naabown (the inf. of which is found only once, Isa 10:13) is the passive or the reflexive of the Hiph. heebiyn , to explain, to make to understand: one who is caused to understand or who lets himself be informed, and thus an intelligent person-that is one who may gain tach|bulowt by means of these proverbs. This word, found only in the plur. (probably connected with chobeel , shipmaster, properly one who has to do with the chabaaliym , ship's ropes, particularly handles the sails, LXX kube'rneesin ), signifies guidance, management, skill to direct anything (Job 32:7, of God's skill which directs the clouds), and in the plur. conception, the taking measures, designs in a good sense, or also (as in Prov 12:5) in a bad sense; here it means guiding thoughts, regulating principles, judicious rules and maxims, as 11:14, prudent rules of government, 20:18; 24:6 of stratagems. Fl. compares the Arab. tedbîr (guidance, from daabar , to lead cattle), with its plur. tedâbîr, and the Syr. dubôro, direction, management, etc.

Verse 6. The mediate object of these proverbs, as stated in v. 2b, is now expanded, for again it is introduced in the infinitive construction:-The reader shall learn in these proverbs, or by means of them as of a key, to understand such like apothegms generally (as Prov 22:17ff.): To understand proverb and symbol, The words of wise men and their enigmas.

In the Gesch. der jüd. Poesie, p. 200f., the derivation of the noun m|liytsaah is traced from luwts , primarily to shine, Sanskr. las, frequently with the meanings ludere and lucere; but the Arab. brings near another primary meaning. "mlytsh, from Arab. root las, flexit, torsit, thus properly oratio detorta, obliqua, non aperta; hence leets , mocker, properly qui verbis obliquis utitur: as Hiph. heeliyts, to scoff, but also verba detorta retorquere, i.e., to interpret, to explain" (Fl.). Of the root ideas found in chiydaah , to be sharp, pointed (chad , perhaps related to the Sanskr. katu, sharp of taste, but not to acutus), and to be twisted (cf. 'aachad , 'aagad, `aaqad , harmonizing with the at present mysterious catena), that the preference is given to the latter already, Ps 78:2. "The Arab. hâd, to revolve, to turn (whence hid, bend, turn aside!), thence chiydaah , strofee', cunning, intrigue, as also enigma, dark saying, perlexe dictum" (Fl.). The comparison made by Schultens with the Arab. hidt as the name of the knot on the horn of the wild-goat shows the sensible fundamental conception. In post-biblical literature chydh is the enigma proper, and m|liytsaah poetry (with halaatsaah of poetical prose). The Graec. Venet. translates it rheetorei'an.

Verse 7. The title of the book is followed by its motto, symbol, device: The fear of Jahve is the beginning of knowledge; Wisdom and discipline is despised by fools.

The first hemistich expresses the highest principle of the Israelitish Chokma, as it is found also in Prov 9:10 (cf. 15:33), Job 28:28, and in Ps 111:10 (whence the LXX has interpolated here two lines). ree'shiyt combines in itself, as archee' , the ideas of initium (accordingly J. H.

Michaelis: initium cognitionis, a quo quisquis recte philosophari cupit auspicium facere debet) and principium, i.e., the basis, thus the root (cf.

Mic 1:13 with Job 19:28). (Note: In Sirach 1:14, 16, the Syr. has both times chmt' rysh ; but in the second instance, where the Greek translation has pleesmonee' sofi'as , chaak|maah soba` (after Ps 16:11) may have existed in the original text.)

Wisdom comes from God, and whoever fears Him receives it (cf. James 1:5f.). y|haaowh yir|'at is reverential subordination to the All-directing, and since designedly yhwh is used, and not 'elohiym (haa), to the One God, the Creator and Governor of the world, who gave His law unto Israel, and also beyond Israel left not His holy will unattested; the reverse side of the fear of Jahve as the Most Holy One is raa` s|no't , Prov 8:13 (post-biblical cheeT|' yir|'at ). The inverted placing of the words 7b imports that the wisdom and discipline which one obtains in the way of the fear of God is only despised by the 'ewiyliym , i.e., the hard, thick, stupid; see regarding the rootword 'wl, coalescere, cohaerere, incrassari, der Prophet Jesaia, p. 424, and at Ps 73:4. Schultens rightly compares pachei's, crassi pro stupidis. (Note: Malbim's explanation is singular: the sceptics, from 'uwlay , perhaps! This also is Heidenheim's view.) baazuw has the tone on the penult., and thus comes from buwz ; the 3rd pr. of baazaah would be baazuw or baazaayuw. The perf. (cf. v. 29) is to be interpreted after the Lat. oderunt (Ges. §126).

FIRST INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 1:8-19

Warning against Fellowship with Those Who Sin against Their Neighbour's Life and Property PROVERBS 1:8,9 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

After the author has indicated the object which his Book of Proverbs is designed to subserve, and the fundamental principle on which it is based, he shows for whom he has intended it; he has particularly the rising generation in his eye: 8 Hear, my son, thy father's instruction, And refuse not the teaching of thy mother; 9 For these are a fair crown to thy head, And Jewels to thy neck. "My son," says the teacher of wisdom to the scholar whom he has, or imagines that he has, before him, addressing him as a fatherly friend. The N.T. representation of birth into a new spiritual life,1 Cor 4:15; Philem 10; Gal 4:19, lies outside the circle of the O.T. representation; the teacher feels himself as a father by virtue of his benevolent, guardian, tender love.

Father and mother are the beloved parents of those who are addressed.

When the Talmud understands 'aabiykaa of God, 'imekaa of the people ('umaah ), that is not the grammatico-historic meaning, but the practical interpretation and exposition, after the manner of the Midrash. The same admonition (with n|tsor , keep, instead of sh|ma` , hear, and mits|wat , command, instead of muwcar , instruction) is repeated in Prov 6:20, and what is said of the parents in one passage is in 10:1 divided into two synonymous parallel passages. The stricter musar, which expresses the idea of sensible means of instruction (discipline), (13:24; 22:15; 23:13f.), is suitably attributed to the father, and the torah to the mother, only administered by the word; Wisdom also always says towraatiy (my torah), and only once, 8:10, muwcaariy (my musar).

Verse 9. heem , which is also used in the neut. illa, e.g., Job 22:24, refers here to the paternal discipline and the maternal teaching. These, obediently received and followed, are the fairest ornament of the child. liw|yaah , from laawaah , to wind, to roll, Arab. lawy (from law, whence also luwl = law|law, as duwd , to boil up, = daw|daw), means winding, twisted ornament, and especially wreath; a crown of gracefulness is equivalent to a graceful crown, a corolla gratiosa, as Schultens translates it; cf. Prov 4:9, according to which, Wisdom bestows such a crown. (Note: In cheen lwyt the chn has the conjunctive accent shalsheleth, on account of which the Pesiq accent () is omitted. This small shalsheleth occurs only eight times. See Torath Emeth, p. 36.) `anaaqiym (or `anaaqowt, Judg 8:26) are necklaces, jewels for the neck; denom. of the Arab. 'unek, and Aram. `uwnaq, the neck (perhaps from `aanaq = `uwq , to oppress, of heavy burdens; cf. auchee'n, the neck). gar|g|rowt , is, like fauces, the throat by which one swallows (Arab. g'argg'ara, tag'argg'ara), a plur. extensive (Böttcher, §695), and is better fitted than gaarown to indicate the external throat; Ezekiel, however, uses (Ezek 16:11) garon, as our poet (3:3,22; 6:21) uses garg'roth, to represent the front neck. (Note: The writing varies greatly. Here and at Prov 6:21 we have l|gar|g|rotekaa ; at 3:3, `al-gar|g|rowtekaa, 3:22, l|gar|g|roteykaa . Thus according to the Masora and correct texts.)

PROVERBS. 1:10

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

The general counsel of v. 9 is here followed by a more special warning: My son, if sinners entice thee Consent thou not.

The b|niy (Note: The accent Pazer over the b|niy has the force of Athnach.) (my son) is emphatically repeated. The intensive from chaTaa'iym (signifies men to whom sin has become a habit, thus vicious, wicked. pitaah (Pi. of paataah , to open) is not denom., to make or wish to make a p|tiy ; the meaning, to entice (harmonizing with pei'thein ), pitaah obtains from the root-meaning of the Kal, for it is related to it as pandere (januam) to patere: to open, to make accessible, susceptible, namely to persuasion. The warning 10b is as brief as possible a call of alarm back from the abyss. In the form tobee' (from 'aabaah , to agree to, to be willing, see Wetstein in Job, p. 349) the preformative ' is wanting, as in tom|ruw , 2 Sam 19:14, cf. Ps 139:20, Ges. §68, 2, and instead of tobeh (= to'beh , 1 Kings 20:8) is vocalized not tobe' (cf. Prov 11:25), but after the Aram. tobee' (cf. yig|leey); see Gen 26:29, and Comment. on Isaiah, p. 648; Gesen. §75, 17.

Of the number of wicked men who gain associates to their palliation and strengthening, they are adduced as an example whom covetousness leads to murder. 11 If they say, "Go with us, we will lurk for blood, Lie in wait for the innocent without cause; 12 Luke the pit we will swallow them alive And in perfect soundness like them that go down to the grave. 13 We find all manner of precious treasure,\\ Fill our houses with spoil. 14 Thou shalt cast thy lot amongst us, We all have only one purse." PROVERBS 1:11-14 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Verse 11. The verb 'aarab signifies nectere, to bind fast (from rab , close, compact), (see under Isa 25:11), and particularly (but so that it bears in itself its object without ellipse) insidias nectere = insidiari.

Regarding l|daam Fleischer remarks: "Either elliptically for lish|paak|-daam (Jewish interp.), or, as the parallelism and the usage of the language of this book rather recommend, per synecd. for: for a man, with particular reference to his blood to be poured out (cf. our saying 'ein junges Blut,' a young blood = a youth, with the underlying conception of the blood giving colour to the body as shining through it, or giving to it life and strength), as Ps 94:21." As in post-biblical Heb. waadaam baasaar (or inverted, ahima kai' sa'rx , Heb 2:14), used of men as such, is not so used in the O.T., yet daam , like nepesh , is sometimes used synecdochically for the person, but never with reference to the blood as an essentially constituent part of corporealness, but always with reference to violent putting to death, which separates the blood from the body (cf. my System der bibl. Psychologie, p. 242).

Here l|daam is explained by l|daamiym , with which it is interchanged, Mic 7:2: let us lurk for blood (to be poured out). The verb tsaapan is never, like Taaman (to conceal), connected with chabaaliym , mowq|shiym , pach , reshet -thus none of these words is here to be supplied; the idea of gaining over one expressed in the organic root tsp (whence tsipaah , diducendo obducere) has passed over into that of restraining oneself, watching, lurking, hence tspn (cog. Aram. k|man) in the sense of speculari, insidiari, interchanges with tsph (to spy), (cf. Ps 10:8; 56:7 with 37:32).

The adv. chinaam (an old accus. from cheen ) properly means in a gracious manner, as a free gift (doorea'n , gratis = gratiis), and accordingly, without reward, also without cause, which frequently = without guilt; but it never signifies sine effectu qui noceat, i.e., with impunity (Löwenst.). We have thus either to connect together chinaam naaqiy "innocent in vain" (as chinaam 'oy|bay , my enemies without a cause, Lam 3:52): his innocence helps him nothing whom God protects not against us notwithstanding his innocence (Schultens, Bertheau, Elster, and others); or connect chnm with the verb (lie in wait for), for which Hitzig, after the LXX, Syr., Rashi, (Note: Rashi, i.e., Rabbi Salomo Isaaki, of Troyes, died A.D. 1105.

Ralbag, i.e., Rabbi Levi ben Gershon, usually referred to by Christian writers as Master Leo de Bannolis, or Gersonides, a native of Banolas near Gerona, died about 1342.)

Ralbag, Immanuel, rightly decides in view of 1 Sam 19:5; 25:31; cf. also Job 9:17, where the succession of the accents is the same (Tarcha transmuted from Mugrash). Frequently there are combined together in his chnm (cf. Isa 28:14f.), that which the author thinks, and that which those whom he introduces as speaking think.

Verse 12. The first clause of this verse Hitzig translates: "as the pit (swallows) that which lives." This is untenable, because k| with the force of a substantive (as instar, likeness) is regarded as a preposition, but not a conjunction (see at Ps 38:14f.). chayiym (the living) is connected with nib|laa`eem , and is the accus. of the state (hâl, according to the terminology of the Arab. grammarians) in which they will, with impunity, swallow them up like the pit (the insatiable, Prov 27:20; 30:16), namely, while these their sacrifices are in the state of life's freshness, (Note: Only in this sense is the existing accentuation of this verse (cf. the Targ.) to be justified.) "the living,"-without doubt, like Ps 55:16; 63:10; 124:3, in fact and in expression an allusion to the fate of the company of Korah, Num. 16:30 33. If this is the meaning of chyym , then t|miymiym as the parallel word means integros not in an ethical sense, in which it would be a synonym of nqy of v. 11b (cf. Prov 29:10 with Ps 19:14), but in a physical sense (Graec. Venet. kai' telei'ous ; Parchon as Rashi, wsleemym bry'ym, vid., Böttcher, De Inferis, §293).

This physical sense is claimed for tom , Job 21:23, for tam probably, Ps 73:4, and why should not tmym , used in the law regarding sacrifices (e.g., Ex 12:5, "without blemish") of the faultlessness of the victim, also signify such an one m|tom 'eeyn-bow 'asher (Isa 1:6)? In the midst of complete external health they will devour them like those that go down to the grave (cf. Ps 28:1; 88:5, with Isa 14:19), i.e., like those under whose feet the earth is suddenly opened, so that, without leaving any trace behind, they sink into the grave and into Hades. The connection of the finite with the accus. of place, Ps 55:16, lies at the foundation of the genitive connection bowr yowr|deey (with the tone thrown back): those that go down to the grave.

Verse 13-14. (Note: Here, in v. 14, gwrlk is to be written with Munach (not Metheg) in the second syllable; vid., Torath Emeth, p. 20.

Accentuationssystem, vii. §2.)

To their invitation, bearing in itself its own condemnation, they add as a lure the splendid self-enriching treasures which in equal and just fellowship with them they may have the prospect of sharing. hown (from huwn , levem, then facilem esse, être aise, à son aise) means aisance, convenience, opulence, and concretely that by which life is made agreeable, thus money and possessions (Fleischer in Levy's Chald. Wörterbuch, i. 423f.). With this hwn with remarkable frequency in the Mishle yaaqaar (from yaaqar , Arab. wakar, grave esse) is connected in direct contrast, according to its primary signification; cf. Prov 12:27; 24:4: heavy treasures which make life light. Yet it must not be maintained that, as Schultens has remarked, this oxymoron is intended, nor also that it is only consciously present in the language. maatsaa' has here its primitive appropriate signification of attaining, as Isa 10:14 of reaching. shaalaal (from shaalal , to draw from, draw out, from sl, cf. shaalaah , shaalap , Arab. salab, Comm. on Isa. p. 447) is that which is drawn away from the enemy, exuviae, and then the booty and spoil taken in war generally. n|malee' , to fill with anything, make full, governs a double accusative, as the Kal (to become full of anything) governs only one.

In v. 14, the invitation shows how the prospect is to be realized.

Interpreters have difficulty in conceiving what is here meant. Do not a share by lot and a common purse exclude one another? Will they truly, in the distribution of the booty by lot, have equal portions at length, equally much in their money-bags? Or is it meant that, apart from the portion of the booty which falls to every one by lot, they have a common purse which, when their business is ebbing, must supply the wants of the company, and on which the new companion can maintain himself beforehand? Or does it mean only that they will be as mutually helpful to one another, according to the principle ta' too'n fi'loon koina' (amicorum omnia communia), as if they had only one purse?

The meaning is perfectly simple. The oneness of the purse consists in this, that the booty which each of them gets, belongs not wholly or chiefly to him, but to the whole together, and is disposed of by lot; so that, as far as possible, he who participated not at all in the affair in obtaining it, may yet draw the greatest prize.

This view harmonizes the relation between 14b and 14a. The common Semitic kiyc is even used at the present day in Syria and elsewhere as the name of the Exchange ("Börse") (plur akjâs); here it is the purse ("Kasse") (chreema'toon dochei'on , Procop.), which is made up of the profits of the business. This profit consists not merely in gold, but is here thought of in regard to its worth in gold. The apparent contradiction between distributing by lot and having a common purse disappears when the distribution by lot of the common property is so made, that the retaining of a stock-capital, or reserve fund, is not excluded.

PROVERBS. 1:15

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

After the men are described against whose enticements a warning is given forth, the warning is emphatically repeated, and is confirmed by a threefold reason: My son! go not in the way with them.

Keep back thy foot from their path.

If b|derek| (in the way), taken alone, cannot be equivalent to 'echaad bdrk (in one way), so is 'itaam (with them) to be regarded as its determination. (Note: The Arab. grammarians regard this as half determination, and call it takhsys; that 'itaam has with them the force of a virtually coordinated attributive; while, according to the Arab. gram., it is also possible that b|derek| , "in one way," is equivalent to on the common way, for in the indetermination sometimes there lies the conception not merely of âhad, but of weahad.)

Foot (not feet), as eye, hand, etc., is used where the members come less under consideration than what they unitedly bring about (Prov 4:26f.). n|tiybaah , from naatab, signifies properly that which is raised, especially the (raised) footstep.

PROVERBS. 1:16

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

The first argument to enforce the warning: For their feet run to the evil, And hasten to shed blood.

That this is their object they make no secret (v. 11ff.); but why is it that such an object as this should furnish no ground of warning against them, especially as on this beginning the stamp of that which is morally blamable is here impressed with laara` ? Besides, this circular movement of the thoughts is quite after the manner of this poet; and that v. 16 is his style, Prov 6:18 shows. The want of this distich (16b = Rom 3:15) in LXX B. ' . weighs heavier certainly than the presence of it in LXX A. (Procop., Syro-Hezap.), since the translation is not independent, but is transferred from Isa 59:7; but if for the first time, at a later period, it is supplied in the LXX, yet it has the appearance of an addition made to the Hebr. text from Isa 59:7 (Hitzig, Lagarde); cf. Comm. on Isaiah, 40-66. lish|pok| is always pointed thus; for, as a regular rule, after l as well as m the aspiration disappears; but in Ezek 17:17 bish|pok| is also found, and in this case (cf. at Ps 40:15) the punctuation is thus inconsequent.

PROVERBS. 1:17

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

The second argument in support of the warning. For in vain is the net spread out In the eyes of all (the winged) birds.

The interpretation conspersum est rete, namely, with corn as a bait, which was put into circulation by Rashi, is inadmissible; for as little as hizaah (Hiph. of naazaah ) can mean to strew, can zeeraah mean to spread.

The object is always that which is scattered (gestreut), not that which is spread (bestreut). Thus, expansum est rete, but not from maazar, extendere, from which m|zowraah (Note: The MS Masora remarks wchcr lyt, and hence m|zoraah is written defectively in the Erfurt, 1, 2, 3, Frankf. 1294, in the edition of Norzi and elsewhere.) in this form cannot be derived (it would in that case be m|zuwraah), but from zoraah , pass. of zeeraah, to scatter, spread out. The alluring net, when it is shaken out and spread, is, as it were, scattered, ventilatur.

But if this is done incautiously before the eyes of the birds to be caught, they forthwith fly away.

The principle stress lies on the b|`eeyneey (before the eyes) as the reason of the chinaam (in vain), according to the saying of Ovid, Quae nimis apparent retia, vitat avis. The applicatio similitudinis lying near, according to J. H. Michaelis, is missed even by himself and by most others. If the poet wished to say that they carried on their work of blood with such open boldness, that he must be more than a simpleton who would allow himself to be caught by them, that would be an unsuitable ground of warning; for would there not be equally great need for warning against fellowship with them, if they had begun their enticement with more cunning, and reckoned on greater success? Hitzig, Ewald, Zöckler, and others, therefore interpret chnm , not in the sense of in vain, inasmuch as they do not let themselves be caught; but: in vain, for they see not the net, but only the scattered corn. But according to the preceding, haaraashet (the net) leads us to think only either of the net of the malicious designs, or the net of the alluring deceptions. Thus, as Ziegler has noticed, the warned ought to make application of the similitude to himself: God not with them, for their intention is bad; go not with them, for if the bird flees away from the net which is spread out before it, thou wilt not surely be so blind as suffer thyself to be ensnared by their gross enticements. kaanaap ba`al : the furnished with the wing (wings in Eccl 10:20); ba`al forms the idea of property (lord).

PROVERBS. 1:18

And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

The causal conj. kiy (for) in vv. 16 and 17 are coordinated; and there now follows, introduced by the conj. w ("and"), a third reason for the warning: And they lie in wait for their own blood, They lay snares for their own lives.

The warning of v. 16 is founded on the immorality of the conduct of the enticer; that of 17 on the audaciousness of the seduction as such, and now on the self-destruction which the robber and murderer bring upon themselves: they wish to murder others, but, as the result shows, they only murder themselves. The expression is shaped after v. 11, as if it were:

They lay snares, as they themselves say, for the blood of others; but it is in reality for their own blood: they certainly lie in wait, as they say; but not, as they add, for the innocent, but for their own lives (Fl.). Instead of l|daamaam , there might be used lid|meeyhem, after Mic 7:2; but l|nap|shaam would signify ipsis (post-biblical, l|`ats|maam), while l|nap|shotaam leaves unobliterated the idea of the life: animis ipsorum; for if the O.T. language seeks to express ipse in any other way than by the personal pronoun spoken emphatically, this is done by the addition of nepesh (Isa 53:11). w|heem was on this account necessary, because v. 17 has another subject (cf. Ps 63:10).

PROVERBS. 1:19

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

An epiphonema: Such is the lot of all who indulge in covetousness; It takes away the life of its owner.

This language is formed after Job 8:13. Here, as there, in the word 'aar|chowt , the ideas of action and issue, manner of life and its result, are all combined. betsa` signifies properly that which is cut off, a piece, fragment broken off, then that which one breaks off and takes to himself-booty, gain, particularly unjust gain (Prov 28:16). betsa` botseea` is he who is greedy or covetous. The subject to yiqaach is betsa` , covetousness, pleonexi'a (see Isa 57:17). As Hos; 4:11, says of three other things that they taken away leeb , the understanding (nou's ), so here we are taught regarding unjust gain or covetousness, that it takes away nepesh , the life (psuchee' ) (nepesh laaqach , to take away the life, 1 Kings 19:10; Ps 31:14). b|`aalaayw denotes not the possessor of unjust gain, but as an inward conception, like 'ap b`l , Prov 22:24, cf. 23:2; 24:8; Eccl 10:11, him of whom covetousness is the property. The sing. nepesh does not show that b|`aalaayw is thought of as sing.; cf. Prov 22:23, Ps. 34:23; but according to 3:27; 16:22; Eccl 8:8, this is nevertheless probable, although the usage without the suffix is always betsa` ba`al , and not ba`aleey (of plur. intens. b|`aaliym ).

SECOND INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 1:20-33

Discourse of Wisdom to Her Despisers After the teacher of wisdom has warned his disciples against the allurements of self-destroying sin, whose beastly demoniacal nature culminates in murder and robbery, he introduces Wisdom herself saying how by enticing promises and deterring threatenings she calls the simple and the perverse to repentance. Wisdom is here personified, i.e., represented as a person. But this personification presupposes, that to the poet wisdom is more than a property and quality of human subjectivity: she is to him as a divine power, existing independently, to submit to which is the happiness of men, and to reject which is their destruction. And also to the public appearance of wisdom, as it is here represented, there must be present objective reality, without which the power of conviction departs from the figure. The author must think on historical and biographical facts, on human organs (as 2 Chron 17:7-9, cf. Wisd. 7:27), through which, without words and in words, Wisdom delivers such addresses. But the figure cannot be so historical that it sustains only the relation to a definite time, and not to all time; it is a call to repentance, going forth to all time and to all places, which, divested of all the accidents of its externality, he here refers to its invisible divine background, when he begins in these words: 20 Wisdom cries, sounding loudly in the streets, She causes her voice to be heard in the chief streets. 21 Over the places of greatest tumult she calleth; In the porches of the gates, in the city, she speaketh forth her words.

PROVERBS. 1:20-33

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

Verse 20. Looking to its form and vocalization, chaak|mowt may be an Aramaizing abstract formation (Gesen.; Ew. 165, c; Olsh. 219, b); for although the forms 'aachowt and g|lowt are of a different origin, yet in ribowt and howleelowt such abstract formations lie before us. The termination ûth is here, by the passing over of the u into the less obscure but more intensive o (cf. y|how in the beginning and middle of the word, and yaahow y|huw at the end of the word), raised to ôth, and thereby is brought near to the fem. plur. (cf. chak|mowt , Prov 14:1, sapientia, as our plur. of the neut. sapiens, chakaamaah ), approaching to the abstract. On the other hand, that chaak|mowt is sing. of abstract signification, is not decisively denoted by its being joined to the plur. of the predicate (for taaronaah here, as at 8:3, is scarcely plur.; and if raa'mowt , 24:7, is plur., chaak|mowt as the numerical plur. may refer to the different sciences or departments of knowledge); but perhaps by this, that it interchanges with t|buwnowt , Ps 49:4, cf. Prov 11:12; 28:16, and that an abstract formation from chaak|maah (fem. of chokem, chakom), which besides is not concrete, was unnecessary. Still less is chaak|mowt = chaak|maat a singular, which has it in view to change chaak|maah into a proper name, for proof of which Hitzig refers to t|howmowt , Ps 78:15; the singular ending ôth without an abstract signification does not exist. After that Dietrich, in his Abhandl. 1846, has shown that the origin of the plur. proceeds not from separate calculation, but from comprehension, (Note: In the Indo-Germanic languages the s of the plur. also probably proceeds from the prep. sa (sam) = sun . See Schleicher, Compend. der vergl. Gram. §247.) and that particularly also names denoting intellectual strength are frequently plur., which multiply the conception not externally but internally, there is no longer any justifiable doubt that chaak|mowt signifies the all-comprehending, absolute, or, as Böttcher, §689, expresses it, the full personal wisdom. Since such intensive plurals are sometimes united with the plur. of the predicate, as e.g., the monotheistically interpreted Elohim, Gen 35:7 (see l.c.), so taaronaah may be plur.

On the other hand, the idea that it is a forma mixta of taaron (from raanan ) and tir|neh (Job 39:23) or t|raneh, the final sound in ah opposes. It may, however, be the emphatic form of the 3rd fem. sing. of raanan ; for, that the Hebr. has such an emphatic form, corresponding to the Arab. taktubanna, is shown by these three examples (keeping out of view the suspicion of a corruption of the text, Olsh. p. 452), Judg 5:26; Job 17:16; Isa 28:3; cf. tish|lach|naah , Obad 13 (see Caspari, l.c.), an example of the 2nd masc. sing. of this formation. raanan (with raanaah ) is a word imitative of sound (Schallwort), used to denote "a clear-sounding, shrill voice (thence the Arab. rannan, of a speaker who has a clear, piercing voice); then the clear shrill sound of a string or chord of a bow, or the clear tinkle of the arrow in the quiver, and of the metal that has been struck" (Fl.). The meaning of r|chobowt is covered by plateae (Luke 14:21), wide places; and chuwts , which elsewhere may mean that which is without, before the gates of the city and courts, here means the "open air," in contradistinction to the inside of the houses.

Verse 21. homiyowt (plur. of chowmiy, the ground-form of howmeh , from haamay = haamaah ), "they who are making noise;" for the epithet is poetically sued (Isa 22:2) as a substantive, crowded noisy streets or places. ro'sh is the place from which on several sides streets go forth: cf. ras el-ain, the place where the well breaks forth; ras en-nahr, the place from which the stream divides itself; the sing. is meant distributively as little as at Prov 8:2. petach , if distinguished from sha`ar (which also signifies cleft, breach), is the opening of the gate, the entrance by the gate. Four times the poet says that Wisdom goes froth preaching, and four times that she preaches publicly; the baa`iyr used in five places implies that Wisdom preaches not in the field, before the few who there are met with, but in the city, which is full of people.

Verse 22. The poet has now reached that part of his introduction where he makes use of the very words uttered by Wisdom: How long, ye simple, will ye love simplicity, And scorners delight in scorning, And fools hate knowledge?

Three classes of men are here addressed: the p|taayim , the simple, who, being accessible to seduction, are only too susceptible of evil; the leetsiym , mockers, i.e., free-thinkers (from luwts , Arab. lus, flectere, torquere, properly qui verbis obliquis utitur); and the k|ciyliym , fools, i.e., the mentally imbecile and stupid (from kaacal , Arab. kasal, to be thick, coarse, indolent). The address to these passes immediately over into a declaration regarding them; cf. the same enallage, Prov 1:27f. `ad-maatay has the accent Mahpach, on account of the Pasek following; vid., Torath Emeth, p. 26. Intentionally, Wisdom addresses only the ptym, to whom she expects to find soonest access. Between the futt., which express the continuing love and hatred, stands the perf. aachm|duw, which expresses that in which the mockers found pleasure, that which was the object of their love. laahem is the so-called dat. ethicus, which reflexively refers to that which is said to be the will and pleasure of the subject; as we say, "I am fond of this and that."

The form t|'eehabuw , Abulwalîd, Parchon, and Kimchi regard as Piel; but t|'eehabuw instead of t|'ahabuw would be a recompensatio of the virtual doubling, defacing the character of the Piel. Schultens regards it as a defectively written Paiël (in Syr.), but it is not proved that this conjugation exists in Hebr.; much rather t|'eehabuw is the only possible Kal form with te'ehaabuwn without the pause, regularly formed from te'ehabuw (vid., Ewald, §193, a). The division by the accent Mercha-Mahpach of the two words pty t'hbw is equal in value to the connecting of them by Makkeph; vid., Baer's Psalterium, p. x. In codd., and also in correct texts, t'hbw is written with the accent Galgal on the first syllable, as the servant of the Mercha-Mahpach. The Gaja is incorrectly here and there placed under the t|.

Verse 23. To the call to thoughtfulness which lies in the complaint "How long?" there follows the entreaty: Turn ye at my reproof!

Behold! I would pour out my Spirit upon you, I would make you to know my words. 23a is not a clause expressive of a wish, which with the particle expressive of a wish, which is wanting, would be taashuwbuw-naa', or according to Prov 23:1 and 27:23 would be taashuwbuw showb . The hineeh , introducing the principal clause, stamps 23a as the conditional clause; the relation of the expressions is as Isa 26:10; Job 20:24. taashuwbuw (Note: In the Hagiographa everywhere written plene, with exception of Job 17:10.) is not equivalent to si convertamini, which would require tip|nuw , but to si revertamini; but l|towkach|tiy (Note: The Metheg belongs to the t, under which it should be placed (and not to the l), as the commencing sound of the second syllable before the tone-syllable; cf. v. 25.) does not therefore mean at my reproof, i.e., in consequence of it (Hitzig, after Num 16:34), but it is a constructio praegnans: turning and placing yourselves under my reproof.

With twkcht there is supposed an e'legchos (LXX, Symm.): bringing proof, conviction, punishment. If they, leaving their hitherto accustomed way, permit themselves to be warned against their wickedness, then would Wisdom cause her words to flow forth to them, i.e., would without reserve disclose and communicate to them her spirit, cause them to know (namely by experience) her words. hibiya` (from naaba` , R. nb ; vid., Genesis, p. 635) is a common figurative word, expressive of the free pouring forth of thoughts and words, for the mouth is conceived of as a fountain (cf. Prov 18:4 with Matt 12:34), and the rhee'sis (vid., LXX) as rheu'sis; only here it has the Spirit as object, but parallel with d|baaray , thus the Spirit as the active power of the words, which, if the Spirit expresses Himself in them, are pneu'ma kai' zooee' , John 6:63. The addresses of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs touch closely upon the discourses of the Lord in the Logos-Gospel. Wisdom appears here as the fountain of the words of salvation for men; and these words of salvation are related to her, just as the lo'goi to the divine lo'gos expressing Himself therein.

Verse 24-27. The address of Wisdom now takes another course. Between vv. 23 and 24 there is a pause, as between Isa 1:20 and 21. In vain Wisdom expects that her complaints and enticements will be heard. Therefore she turns her call to repentance into a discourse announcing judgment. 24 Because I have called, and ye refused; Stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 And ye have rejected all my counsel And to my reproof have not yielded: 26 Therefore will I also laugh at your calamity, Will mock when your terror cometh; 27 When like a storm your terror cometh, And your destruction swept on like a whirlwind; When distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Commencing with ya`an (which, like ma`an , from `aanaah , to oppose, denotes the intention, but more the fundamental reason or the cause than, as l|ma`an , the motive or object), the clause, connected with gam-'aniy, ego vicissim, turns to the conclusion. As here qaaraa'tiy ya`an (as the word of Jahve) are connected by gam-'aniy to the expression of the talio in Isa 66:4, so also mee'een , with its contrast 'aabaah , Isa 1:19f. The construction quoniam vocavi et renuistis for quoniam quum vocarem renuistis (cf. Isa 12:1) is the common diffuse (zerstreute) Semitic, the paratactic instead of the periodizing style. The stretching out of the hand is, like the "spreading out" in Isa 65:2, significant of striving to beckon to the wandering, and to bring them near. Regarding hiq|shiyb , viz., 'aaz|now , to make the ear still (R. qs), arrigere, incorrectly explained by Schultens, after the Arab kashab, polire, by aurem purgare, vid., Isaiah, p. 257, note.

Verse 25. paara` is synonymous with naaTash , Prov 1:8; cf. 4:15 p|raa`eehuw , turn from it. Gesenius has inaccurately interpreted the phrase r's pr` of the shaving off of the hair, instead of the letting it fly loose. pr` means to loosen (= to lift up, syn. heecheel ), to release, to set free; it combines the meanings of loosening and making empty, or at liberty, which is conveyed in Arab. by fr' and frg. The latter means, intrans., to be set free, therefore to be or to become free from occupation or business; with (Arabic mn) of an object, to be free from it, i.e., to have accomplished it, to have done with it (Fl.). Thus: since ye have dismissed (missum fecistis) all my counsel (`eetsaah as leedaah , from yaa`ats , Arabic w'd), i.e., what I always would advise to set you right. 'aabaah combines in itself the meanings of consent, 1:10, and compliance, 1:30 (with l|), and, as here, of acceptance. The principal clause begins like an echo of Ps 2:4 (cf. Jer 20:7).

Verse 26-27. saachaq , as Prov 31:25 shows, is not to be understood with b|; b| is that of the state or time, not of the object. Regarding 'eeyd , calamitas opprimens, obruens (from 'uwd = Arabic âda, to burden, to oppress), see at Ps 31:12. bo' is related to ye'eteh as arriving to approaching; pach|d|kem is not that for which they are in terror-for those who are addressed are in the condition of carnal security-but that which, in the midst of this, will frighten and alarm them.

The Chethîb s'wh is pointed thus, sha'awaah (from shaa'aw = shaa'aah , as ra'awaah , za`awaah after the form 'ahabaah , da'abaah); the Kerî substitutes for this infinitive name the usual particip. sho'aah (where then the Vav is ytyr, "superfluous"), crashing (fem. of sho'eh), then a crash and an overthrow with a crash; regarding its root-meaning (to be waste, and then to sound hollow), see under Ps 35:8. cuwpaah (from cuwp = caapaah ), sweeping forth as a (see Prov 10:25) whirlwind.

The infinitive construction of 27a is continued in 27b in the finite. "This syntactical and logical attraction, by virtue of which a modus or tempus passes by w or by the mere parallel arrangement (as Prov 2:2) from one to another, attracted into the signification and nature of the latter, is peculiar to the Hebr. If there follows a new clause or section of a clause where the discourse takes, as it were, a new departure, that attraction ceases, and the original form of expression is resumed; cf. 1:22, where after the accent Athnach the future is returned to, as here in 27c the infinitive construction is restored" (Fl.). The alliterating words w|tsuwqaah tsaaraah , cf. Isa 30:6; Zeph 1:15, are related to each other as narrowness and distress (Hitzig); the Mashal is fond of the stave-rhyme. (Note: Jul. Ley, in his work on the Metrical Forms of Hebrew Poetry, 1866, has taken too little notice of these frequently occurring alliteration staves; Lagarde communicated to me (8th Sept. 1846) his view of the stave-rhyme in the Book of Proverbs, with the remark, "Only the Hebr. technical poetry is preserved to us in the O.T. records; but in such traces as are found of the stave-rhyme, there are seen the echoes of the poetry of the people, or notes passing over from it.") Verse 28-31. Then-this sublime preacher in the streets continues-distress shall teach them to pray: 28 Then shall they call on me, and I will not answer; They shall early seek after me, and not find me; 29 Because that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jahve. 30 They have not yielded to my counsel, Despised all my reproof: 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their way, And satiate themselves with their own counsels.

In the full emphatic forms, yiq|raa'un|niy , they shall call on me, y|shacharun|niy , they shall seek me, and yim|tsaa'un|niy , they shall find me, the suffix niy may be joined to the old plur. ending ûn (Gesenius, Olshausen, Böttcher); but open forms like y|baaraken|huw, He will bless him, y|kab|daan|niy , He will honour me (from y|kab|daniy), and the like, rather favour the conclusion that n is epenthetic (Ew. §250, b). (Note: In the Codd. yiq|raa'un|niy is written; in this case the Metheg indicates the tone syllable: vid., Torath Emeth, p. 7 note, p. 21 note; and Accentssystem, ii. §1, note. In y|shachauron|niy the Rebia is to be placed over the r. In the Silluk-word yim|tsaa'un|niy it appears undoubtedly that the form is to be spoken as Milel, i.e., with tone on the penult.)

The address here takes the form of a declaration: Stultos nunc indignos censet ulteriori alloquio (Mich.). It is that laughter and scorn, v. 26, which here sounds forth from the address of the Judge regarding the incorrigible. shicheer is denom. of shachar , to go out and to seek with the morning twilight, as also biqeer, Ps 27:5, perhaps to appear early, and usually (Arab.) bakar (I, II, IV), to rise early, to be zealous (Lane: "He hastened to do or accomplish, or attain the thing needed"). Zöckler, with Hitzig, erroneously regards vv. 29, 30 as the antecedent to v. 31. With w|yo'k|luw , "and they shall eat," the futt. announcing judgment are continued from v. 28; cf. Deut 28:46-48. The conclusion after kiy tachat , "therefore because," or as usually expressed (except here and Deut 4:37, cf. Gen 4:25), 'asher tachat (anth' oo'n ), is otherwise characterized, Deut 22:29; 2 Chron 21:12; and besides, 'shr tcht stands after (e.g., 1 Sam 26:21; 2 Kings 22:17; Jer 29:19) oftener than before the principal clause. baachar combines in itself the meanings of eligere and diligere (Fl.). The construction of l| 'aabaah (to be inclining towards) follows that of the analogous l| shaama` (to hear).

Each one eats of the fruit of his way-good fruit of good ways (Isa 3:10), and evil fruit of evil ways. "The min , 31b, introduces the object from which, as a whole, that which one eats, and with which he is satisfied, is taken as a part, or the object from which, as from a fountain, satisfaction flows forth" (Fl.). In correct texts, w|yo'k|luw has the accent Dechî, and at the same time Munach as its servant. Regarding the laws of punctuation, according to which uwmimo`atsoteeyhem (with Munach on the tone-syllable, Tarcha on the antepenult, and Metheg before the Chateph-Pathach) is to be written, see Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 11, Accentssystem, iv. §4. Norzi accents the word incorrectly with Rebia Mugrash. With the exception of Prov 22:22, the pluralet (Note: A plur. denoting unity in the circumstances, and a similarity in the relations of time and space.) mow`eetsowt has always the meaning of ungodly counsels.

Verse 32,33. The discourse is now summarily brought to a close: 32 For the perverseness of the simple slays them, And the security of fools destroys them. 33 But whoever harkeneth to me dwells secure, And is at rest from fear of evil.

Of the two interpretations of shuwb , a turning towards (with 'el and the like, conversion) or a turning away (with mee'achareey or mee`al , desertion), in m|shuwbaah the latter (as in the post-Bib. t|shuwbaah , repentance, the former) is expressed; apostasy from wisdom and from God are conjoined. shal|waah is here carnalis securitas; but the word may also denote the external and the internal peace of the righteous, as sha'anaan , whence shal|'anaan , Job 21:23, as a superlative is formed by the insertion of the l of shaaleew , is taken in bonam et malam partem. sha'anaan is, according to the Masora (also in Jer 30:10; 46:27; 48:11), 3rd perf. Pilel (Ewald, §120, a), from the unused shaa'an , to be quiet: he has attained to full quietness, and enjoys such. The construction with min follows the analogy of min heeniyach (to give rest from), min shaaqaT (to rest from), and the like. The negative interpretation of min , sine ullo pavore mali (Schultens, Ewald), is unnecessary; also Job 21:9 may be explained by "peace from terror," especially since shaalowm is derived from the root sl, extrahere. raa`aah pachad , "fear of evil," one may perhaps distinguish from r` pchd as the genitive of combination.

THIRD INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, Earnest Striving after Wisdom as the Way to the Fear of God and to Virtue The admonition so far has almost wholly consisted of warning and threatening. The teacher, directing back to the discipline of the paternal home, warns against fellowship in the bloody deeds of the covetous, which issue in self-murder; and Wisdom holds up before her despisers the mirror of the punishment which awaits them. Now the admonition becomes positive. The teacher describes separately the blessings of the endeavour after wisdom; the endeavour after wisdom, which God rewards with the gift of wisdom, leads to religious and moral knowledge, and this guards men on the way of life from all evil. The teacher accordingly interweaves conditions and promises: 1 My son, if thou receivest my words, And keepest my commandments by thee; 2 So that thou inclinest thine ear unto wisdom, Turnest thine heart to understanding;- 3 Yea, if thou callest after knowledge, To understanding directest thy voice; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for treasures: 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jahve, And find the knowledge of God. 6 For Jahve giveth wisdom:

From His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 7 He preserves for the upright promotion; A shield for such as walk in innocence. 8 For He protects the paths of justice, And guards the way of His saints.

PROVERBS. 2:1-2

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; The first 'im , with that which it introduces, vv. 1, 2, is to be interpreted as an exclamation, "O that!" (O si), and then as an optative, as Ps 81:9; 139:19. 'aaz ...kiy , vv. 3-5, with the inserted connecting clauses, would then be confirmatory, "for then." But since this poet loves to unfold one and the same thought in ever new forms, one has perhaps to begin the conditional premisses with v. 1, and to regard 'im kiy as a new commencement. Hitzig takes this 'm ky in the sense of imo: "much more if thou goest to meet her, e.g., by curious inquiry, not merely permittest her quietly to come to thee." 'im would then preserve its conditional meaning; and kiy as in Job 31:18; Ps 130:4, since it implies an intentional negative, would receive the meaning of imo. But the sentences ranged together with 'im are too closely related in meaning to admit such a negative between them. kiy will thus be confirmatory, not mediately, but immediately; it is the "for = yes" of confirmation of the preceding conditions, and takes them up again (Ewald, §356, b, cf. 330 b) after the form of the conditional clause was given up.

The tsaapan , which in Prov 1:11,18, is the synonym of tsaapaah , speculari, presents itself here, 1b, 7a, as the synonym of Taaman , whence mat|moniym , synon. of ts|puwniym, recondita; the group of sounds, tsp, tsm , Tm (cf. also dp, in Arab. dafan, whence dafynat, treasure), express shades of the root representation of pressing together. The inf. of the conclusion l|haq|shiyb , to incline (Fr. Venet. hoos akrooo'to), is followed by the accus. of the object 'aaz|nekaa , thine ear, for hqshyb properly means to stiffen (not to purge, as Schultens, nor to sharpen, as Gesenius thinks); cf. under Ps 10:17. With chaak|maah are interchanged biynaah , which properly means that which is distinguished or separated, and t|buwnaah , which means the distinguishing, separating, appellations of the capacity of distinguishing in definite cases and in general; but it does not represent this as a faculty of the soul, but as a divine power which communicates itself as the gift of God (charisma).

PROVERBS. 2:3-8

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; Instead of 'im kiy there is an old tqry 'l (Note: Regarding this formula, see Strack's Prolegomena, pp. 66-70.) (read not so, but thus), 'eem ky (if thou callest understanding mother), which supposes the phrase 'im ky (LXX) as traditional. If 'eem were intended (according to which the Targ. in the Bibl. rabbinica, but not in Norzi's text, translates), then 3b would correspond; vid., Prov 7:4, cf. Job 17:14. Thus: Yea, if thou callest for understanding, i.e., callest her to thee (Prov 18:6), invitest her to thee (9:15). The q of biqeesh is, with the exception of the imper. (e.g., baq|shuw ), always without the Dagesh. V. 4b belongs to the ideas in the Book of Job found in these introductory discourses, cf. Job 3:21, as at v. 14, Job 3:22 (Ewald, Sprüche, p. 49). chaapas (chipees ), scrutari, proceeds, as chapac shows, from the primary meaning of a ditch, and is thus in its root-idea related to chaapar (to dig, search out).

In the principal clause of v. 5 the h' yir|'at , as Ps 19:10, is the fear of Jahve as it ought to be, thus the reverence which is due to Him, the worshipping of Him as revealed. h' and 'elohiym are interchanged as q|doshiym and h' at Prov 9:10. da`at is knowledge proceeding from practice and experience, and thus not merely cognition (Kenntnis), but knowledge (Erkenntnis). The thoughts revolve in a circle only apparently. He who strives after wisdom earnestly and really, reaches in this way fellowship with God; for just as He gives wisdom, it is nowhere else than with Him, and it never comes from any other source than from Him. It comes (v. 6) mipiyw (LXX erroneously mipaanaayw ), i.e., it is communicated through the medium of His word, Job 22:22, or also (for lo'gos and pneu'ma lie here undistinguished from one another) it is His breath (Book of Wisdom 7:25: atmi's tee's tou' Theou' duna'meoos kai' apo'rrhoia tee's tou' pantokra'toros do'xees eilikrinee's); the inspiration (nshmt ) of the Almighty (according to Job 32:8) gives men understanding. In v. 7a, whether w|tsaapan (Chethîb) or yits|pon (Kerî) is read, the meaning is the same. The former is the expression of the completed fact, as heetoi'masen , 1 Cor 2:9, and is rightly preferred by LXX and Syr., for one reluctantly misses the copula (since the thought is new in comparison with v. 6). layshrm should be written with the accent Dechî. The Chokma-word (besides in Proverbs and Job, found only in Mic 6:9 and Isa 28:29) tuwshiyaah is a Hiphil formation (with the passing over of ô into û, as in tuwgaah ) from howshaah (whence the pr. names yowshaah and yowshaw|yaah ) = (Arab.) wasy and âsy, to re-establish, to advance, Hiph. of yaashaah = waashaah, to stand, and thus means furtherance, i.e., the power or the gift to further, and concretely that which furthers and profits, particularly true wisdom and true fortune. (Note: I was formerly in error in regarding the word as a Hophal formation, and in assigning to it the primary signification of being in a state of realized existence, of reality, in contradistinction to appearance only. The objection of J. D. Michaelis, Supplem. p. 1167, Non placent in linguis ejusmodi etyma metaphysica, etc., does not apply here, since the word is a new one coined by the Chokma, but all the shades of meaning are naturally derived from the fundamental signification "furtherance" (cf. Seneca, Deus stator stabilitorque est). "twshyh, from Arab. âsy and wasy, to further by word and deed, to assist by counsel and act, to render help, whence the meanings auxilium, salus, and prudens consilium, sapientia, easily follow; cf.

Ali's Arab. proverb, w-'s-sâk mn tgâfl-'He furthers thee, who does not trouble himself about thee.' ") The derivation from yeesh (Prov 8:21) is to be rejected, because "the formation would be wholly without analogy, so much the more because the y of this word does not represent the place of the w, as is seen from the Arab. l-ys and the Syr. lyt" (Fl.); (Note: The Arab. 'aysa (almost only in the negative la-ysa = yeesh lo' ), of the same signification as yeesh , with which the Aram. 'iyt ('iytay ) is associated, presupposes an 'âsa (= 'âssa), to be founded, to found, and is rightly regarded by the Arabs as an old segolate noun in which the verbal force was comprehended.) and the derivation of waashaah = shaawaah , to be smooth (Hitzig), passes over without any difficulty into another system of roots. (Note: The Arab. wsy and swy are confounded in common usage (Wetstein, Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr. xxii. 19), but the roots ws and sw are different; ws and 's, on the contrary, are modifications of one root.)

In the passage under consideration (v. 7), tuwshiyaah signifies advancement in the sense of true prosperity. The parallel passage 7a clothes itself in the form of an apposition: (He) a shield (maageen , n. instr. of gaanan , to cover) for tom hol|keey , pilgrims of innocence (Fl.), i.e., such as walk in the way (the object-accus., as Prov 6:12, for which in 10:9 b|) of innocence. tom is whole, full submission, moral faultlessness, which chooses God with the whole heart, seeks good without exception: a similar thought is found in Ps 84:12. lin|tsor , 8a, is such an inf. of consequence as l|haq|shiyb (v. 2), and here, as there, is continued in the finite. The "paths of justice" are understood with reference to those who enter them and keep in them; parallel, "the way of His saints" (chaaciyd , he who cherishes checed , earnest inward love to God), for that is just 'orach-ts|daaqaah (Prov 12:28): they are ts|daaqowt hlky (Isa 33:15). Instead of the Mugrash, the conjunctive Tarcha is to be given to w|derek| .

PROVERBS. 2:9-11

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

With the 'aaz repeated, the promises encouraging to the endeavour after wisdom take a new departure: 9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and justice, And uprightness; every way of good. 10 For wisdom will enter into thine heart, And knowledge will do good to thy soul; 11 Discretion will keep watch over thee, Understanding will keep thee.

Regarding the ethical triad meeyshaariym righteousness, rightness, mish|paaT judgment, and tsedeq rectitude, vid., Prov 1:3.

Seb. Schmid is wrong in his rendering, et omnis via qua bonum aditur erit tibi plana, which in comparison with Isa 26:7 would be feebly expressed.

J. H. Michaelis rightly interprets all these four conceptions as objectaccusatives; the fourth is the summarizing asyndeton (cf. Ps 8:7) breaking off the enumeration: omnem denique orbitam boni; Jerome, bonam: in this case, however, Towb would be genitive (vid., Prov 17:2). ma`|gaal is the way in which the chariot rolls along; in `gl there are united the root-conceptions of that which is found (gl ) and rolling (gl ).

Whether kiy , v. 10, is the argumentative "because" (according to the versions and most interpreters) or "for" ("denn," J. H. Michaelis, Ewald, and others), is a question.

That with kiy = "for" the subject would precede the verb, as at vv. 6, 21, and Prov 1:32 (Hitzig), determines nothing, as v. 18 shows. On the one hand, the opinion that kiy = "because" is opposed by the analogy of the kiy , v. 6, following 'aaz , v. 5; the inequality between vv. 5-8 and v. 9ff. if the new commencement, v. 9, at once gives place to another, v. 10; the relationship of the subject ideas in vv. 10, 11, which makes v. 11 unsuitable to be a conclusion from v. 10. On the contrary, the promise not only of intellectual, but at the same time also of practical, insight into the right and the good, according to their whole compass and in their manifoldness, can be established or explained quite well as we thus read vv. 10, 11: For wisdom will enter (namely, to make it a dwelling-place, 14:33; cf. John 14:23) into thine heart, and knowledge will do good to thy soul (namely, by the enjoyment which arises from the possession of knowledge, and the rest which its certainty yields). da`at , gnoo'sis , is elsewhere fem. (Ps 139:6), but here, as at 8:10; 14:6, in the sense of to' gnoo'nai , is masc.

In v. 11 the contents of the tbyn 'z (v. 9) are further explained. `al shaamar , of watching (for Job 16:16 is to be interpreted differently), is used only by our poet (here and at 6:22). Discretion, i.e., the capacity of well-considered action, will hold watch over thee, take thee under protection; understanding, i.e., the capacity in the case of opposing rules to make the right choice, and in the matter of extremes to choose the right medium, will be bestowed upon thee. In tin|ts|rekaah , as in Ps 61:8; 140:2,5; Deut 33:9, etc., the first stem letter is not assimilated, in order that the word may have a fuller sound; the writing e-kaah for e-kaa is meant to affect the eye. (Note: For the right succession of the accents here, see Torath Emeth, p. 49, § 5; Accentuationssystem, xviii. § 3.)

PROVERBS. 2:12-13

To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; As in vv. 10, 11, the taabiyn 'aaz ("then shalt thou understand," v. 5) is expanded, so now the watching, preserving, is separately placed in view: 12 To deliver thee from an evil way, From the man who speaks falsehood; 13 (From those) who forsake the ways of honesty To walk in ways of darkness,14 Who rejoice to accomplish evil, Delight in malignant falsehood-15 They are crooked in their paths, And perverse in their ways.

That raa` derek| is not genitival, via mali, but adjectival, via mala, is evident from l'-Twb drk|, Prov 16:29. From the evil way, i.e., conduct, stands opposed to the false words represented in the person of the deceiver; from both kinds of contagium wisdom delivers. tah|pukowt (like the similarly formed tach|bulowt , occurring only as plur.) means misrepresentations, viz., of the good and the true, and that for the purpose of deceiving (17:20), fallaciae, i.e., intrigues in conduct, and lies and deceit in words. Fl. compares Arab. ifk, a lie, and affak, a liar. l|hatsiyl|kaa has Munach, the constant servant of Dechî, instead of Metheg, according to rule (Accentssystem, vii. §2). ha`oz|biym (v. 13) is connected with the collective 'iysh (cf. Judg 9:55); we have in the translation separated it into a relative clause with the abstract present.

The vocalization of the article fluctuates, yet the expression ha`zbym, like v. 17 ha`zbt, is the better established (michlol 53b); ha`oz|biym is one of the three words which retain their Metheg, and yet add to it a Munach in the tone-syllable (vid., the two others, Job 22:4; 39:26). To the "ways of honesty" (Geradheit) (cf. the adj. expression, Jer 31:9), which does not shun to come to the light, stand opposed the "ways of darkness," the e'rga tou' sko'tous , Rom 13:12, which designedly conceal themselves from God (Isa 29:15) and men (Job 24:15; 38:13,15).

PROVERBS. 2:14-15

Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; In this verse the regimen of the min , 12b, is to be regarded as lost; the description now goes on independently. Whoever does not shrink back from evil, but gives himself up to deceit, who finally is at home in it as in his own proper life-element, and rejoices, yea, delights in that which he ought to shun as something destructive and to be rejected. The neut. raa` is frequently an attributive genit., Prov 6:24; 15:26; 28:5; cf. Towb , 24:25, which here, since tah|pukowt are those who in themselves are bad, does not separate, but heightens: perversitates non simplices aut vulgares, sed pessimae et ex omni parte vitiosae (J. H.

Michaelis). With 'asher (ho'itines ), v. 15, this part is brought to a conclusion. Fleischer, Bertheau, and others interpret 'aar|choteeyhem , as the accus. of the nearer definition, as skolio's to'n nou'n ta's pra'xeis ; but should it be an accus., then would we expect, in this position of the words, `iq|shuw (Isa 59:8; Prov 10:8, cf. 9:15). `iq|shiym is the pred.; for 'orach , like derek| , admits of both genders. uwn|lowziym carries in it its subject heem ; luwz , like the Arab. l'd, l'dh, is a weaker form of luwts , flectere, inclinare, intrans. recedere: they are turned aside, inclined out of the way to the right and left in their walk (b| as 17:20).

PROVERBS. 2:16-19

To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; With the resumption of l|hatsiyl|kaa , the watchful protection which wisdom affords to its possessors is further specified in these verses: 16 To save thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who useth smooth words; 17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God; 18 For she sinks down to death together with her house, And to the shadow of Hades her paths- 19 All they who go to her return not again, And reach not the paths of life The subject here continued is the fourfold wisdom named in vv. 10, 11. zaar signifies alienus, which may also be equivalent to alius populi, but of a much wider compass---him who does not belong to a certain class (e.g., the non-priestly or the laity), the person or thing not belonging to me, or also some other than I designate; on the other hand, naak|riy , peregrinus, scarcely anywhere divests itself of the essential mark of a strange foreign origin. While thus zaaraah 'ishaah is the nonmarried wife, naak|riyaah designates her as non-Israelitish.

Prostitution was partly sanctioned in the cultus of the Midianites, Syrians, and other nations neighbouring to Israel, and thus was regarded as nothing less than customary. In Israel, on the contrary, the law (Deut 23:18f.) forbade it under a penalty, and therefore it was chiefly practised by foreign women (Prov 23:27, and cf. the exception, Ruth 2:10), (Note: In Talmudic Heb. 'araamiyt (Aramean) has this meaning for the Biblical naak|riyaah .) an inveterate vice, which spread itself particularly from the latter days of Solomon, along with general ungodliness, and excusing itself under the polygamy sanctioned by the law, brought ruin on the state.

The Chokma contends against this, and throughout presents monogamy as alone corresponding to the institution and the idea of the relation.

Designating marriage as the "covenant of God," it condemns not only adulterous but generally promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, because unhallowed and thus unjustifiable, and likewise arbitrary divorce.

Regarding the ancient ceremonies connected with the celebration of marriage we are not specially informed; but from v. 17, Mal 2:14 (Ewald, Bertheau, Hitzig, but not Köhler), it appears that the celebration of marriage was a religious act, and that they who were joined together in marriage called God to witness and ratify the vows they took upon themselves. The perf. in the attributive clause hecheliyqaah 'amaariyhaa proceeds on the routine acquired in cajoling and dissembling: who has smoothed her words, i.e., learned to entice by flattering words (Fl.).

Verse 17-19. 'aluwp , as here used, has nothing to do with the phylarch-name, similar in sound, which is a denom. of 'elep ; but it comes immediately from 'aalap , to accustom oneself to a person or cause, to be familiar therewith (while the Aram. 'alap , y|lip, to learn, Pa. to teach), and thus means, as the synon. of reea` , the companion or familiar associate (vid., Schultens). Parallels such as Jer 3:4 suggested to the old interpreters the allegorical explanation of the adulteress as the personification of the apostasy or of heresy. V. 18a the LXX translate: e'theto ta'r para' too' thana'too to'n oi'kon autee's: she (the dissolute wife) has placed her house beside death (the abyss of death). This shaachaah e'theto ] is perhaps the original, for the text as it lies before us is doubtful, though, rightly understood, admissible.

The accentuation marks beeytaah as the subject, but bayit is elsewhere always masc., and does not, like the rarer 'orach , v. 15, admit in usage a double gender; also, if the fem. usage were here introduced (Bertheau, Hitzig), then the predicate, even though byth were regarded as fem., might be, in conformity with rule, shach , as e.g., Isa 2:17. shaachaah is, as in Ps 44:26, 3rd pr. of shuwach , Arab. sâkh, to go down, to sink; the emendation shaaaachh (Joseph Kimchi) does not recommend itself on this account, that shaachaah and shaachach mean, according to usage, to stoop or to bend down; and to interpret (Ralbag, hshpylh) shaachaah transitively is inadmissible.

For that reason Aben Ezra interprets byth as in apposition: to death, to its house; but then the poet in that case should say 'el-sh|'owl, for death is not a house.

On the other hand, we cannot perceive in byth an accus. of the nearer definition (J. H. Michaelis, Fl.); the expression would here, as 15a, be refined without purpose. Böttcher has recognised byth as permutative, the personal subject: for she sinks down to death, her house, i.e., she herself, together with all that belongs to her; cf. the permutative of the subject, Job 29:3; Isa 29:23 (vid., comm. l.c.), and the more particularly statement of the object, Ex 2:6, etc. Regarding r|paa'iym , shadows of the under-world (from raapaah , synon. chaalaah , weakened, or to become powerless), a word common to the Solomonic writings, vid., Comment. on Isaiah, p. 206. What v. 18b says of the person of the adulteress, v. 19 says of those who live with her byth , her house-companions. baa'eyhaa , "those entering in to her," is equivalent to 'eeleyhaa baa'iym ; the participle of verbs eundi et veniendi takes the accusative object of the finite as gen. in st. constr., as e.g., Prov 1:12; 2:7; Gen 23:18; 9:10 (cf. Jer 10:20). The y|shuwbuwn , with the tone on the ult., is a protestation: there is no return for those who practise fornication, (Note: One is here reminded of the expression in the Aenid, vi. 127- 129: Revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opes, hoc labor est.

See also an impure but dreadful Talmudic story about a dissolute Rabbi, b.

Aboda zara, 17a.) and they do not reach the paths of life from which they have so widely strayed. (Note: In correct texts wl'-ysygw has the Makkeph. Vid., Torath Emeth, p. 41; Accentuationssystem, xx. §2.)

PROVERBS. 2:20-22

That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

With l|ma`an there commences a new section, coordinating itself with the l|hatsiyl|kaa ("to deliver thee") of vv. 12, 16, unfolding that which wisdom accomplishes as a preserver and guide: 20 So that thou walkest in the good way, And keepest the right paths. 21 For the upright shall inhabit the land, And the innocent shall remain in it. 22 But the godless are cut off out the land, And the faithless are rooted out of it.

Wisdom-thus the connection-will keep thee, so that thou shalt not fall under the seductions of man or of woman; keep, in order that thou... l|ma`an (from ma`an = ma`aneh , tendency, purpose) refers to the intention and object of the protecting wisdom. To the two negative designations of design there follows, as the third and last, a positive one. Towbiym (contrast to raa`iym , Prov 14:19) is here used in a general ethical sense: the good (Guten, not Gütigen, the kind). shaamar , with the object of the way, may in another connection also mean to keep oneself from, cavere ab (Ps 17:4); here it means: carefully to keep in it. The promise of v. 21 is the same as in the Mashal Ps 37:9,11,22; cf. Prov 10:30. 'aarets is Canaan, or the land which God promised to the patriarchs, and in which He planted Israel, whom He had brought out of Egypt; not the earth, as Matt 5:5, according to the extended, unlimited N.T. circle of vision. yiuwaat|ruw (Milel) is erroneously explained by Schultens: funiculis bene firmis irroborabunt in terra. The verb yaatar , Arab. watar, signifies to yoke (whence yeter , a cord, rope), then intrans. to be stretched out in length, to be hanging over (vid., Fleischer on Job 30:11); whence yeter , residue, Zeph 2:9, and after which the LXX here renders hupoleifthee'sontai, and Jerome permanebunt. In 22b the old translators render yic|chuw as the fut. of the pass. nicach, Deut 28:63; but in this case it would be yinaac|chuw.

The form yic|chuw , pointed yicachuw , might be the Niph. of caachach, but caachach can neither be taken as one with naacach, of the same meaning, nor with Hitzig is it to be vocalized yuc|chuw (Hoph. of ncch); nor, with Böttcher (§1100, p. 453), is yic|chuw to be regarded as a veritable fut. Niph. yic|chuw is, as at Prov 15:25; Ps 52:7, active: evellant; and this, with the subj. remaining indefinite (for which J. H. Michaelis refers to Hos 12:9), is equivalent to evellentur. This indefinite "they" or "one" ("man"), Fleischer remarks, can even be used of God, as here and Job 7:3-a thing which is common in Persian, where e.g., the expression rendered hominem ex pulvere fecerunt is used instead of the fuller form, which would be rendered homo a Deo ex pulvere factus est. bowg|diym bears (as beged proves) the primary meaning of concealed, i.e., malicious (treacherous and rapacious, Isa 33:1), and then faithless men. (Note: Similar is the relation in Arab. of labbasa to libâs (l|buwsh ); it means to make a thing unknown by covering it; whence telbîs, deceite, mulebbis, a falsifier.)

FOURTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 3:1-18

Exhortation to Love and Faithfulness, and Self-Sacrificing Devotion to God, as the True Wisdom PROVERBS 3:1-2 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

The foregoing Mashal discourse seeks to guard youth against ruinous companionship; this points out to them more particularly the relation toward God and man, which alone can make them truly happy, vv. 1-4. 1 My son, forget not my doctrine, And let thine heart keep my commandments; 2 For length of days, and years of life, And peace, will they add to thee. 3 Let not kindness and truth forsake thee:

Bind them about thy neck, Write them on the tablet of thy heart,4 And obtain favour and true prudence In the eyes of God and of men.

The admonition takes a new departure. towraatiy and mits|owtay refer to the following new discourse and laws of conduct. Here, in the midst of the discourse, we have yitsor and not yin|tsor ; the non-assimilated form is found only in the conclusion, e.g., Prov 2:11; 5:2. The plur. yowciypuw (v. 2) for towceep|naah (they will bring, add) refers to the doctrine and the precepts; the synallage has its ground in this, that the fem. construction in Hebrew is not applicable in such a case; the vulgar Arab. also has set aside the forms jaktubna, taktubna. "Extension of days" is continuance of duration, stretching itself out according to the promise, Ex 20:12, and "years of life" (9:11) are yearsnamely, many of them-of a life which is life in the full sense of the word. chayiym has here the pregnant signification vita vitalis, bi'os biooto's (Fl.). shaalowm (R. sl) is pure well-being, free from all that disturbs peace or satisfaction, internal and external contentment.

PROVERBS. 3:3

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

With this verse the doctrine begins; 'al (not lo' ) shows the 3a does not continue the promise of v. 2. checed (R. chc, stringere, afficere) is, according to the prevailing usage of the language, wellaffectedness, it may be of God toward men, or of men toward God, or of men toward one another-a loving disposition, of the same meaning as the N.T. aga'pee (vid., e.g., Hos 6:6). 'emet (from 'amenet), continuance, a standing to one's promises, and not falsifying just expectations; thus fidelity, pi'stis , in the interrelated sense of fides and fidelitas. These two states of mind and of conduct are here contemplated as moral powers (Ps 61:8; 43:3), which are of excellent service, and bring precious gain; and 4b shows that their ramification on the side of God and of men, the religious and the moral, remains radically inseparable.

The suffix ee-m does not refer to the doctrine and the precepts, but to these two cardinal virtues. If the disciple is admonished to bind them about his neck (vid., Prov 1:9, cf. 3:22), so here reference is made, not to ornament, nor yet to protection against evil influences by means of them, as by an amulet (Note: Fleischer is here reminded of the giraffe in the Jardin des Plantes, the head of which was adorned by its Arabic keeper with strings and jewels, the object of which was to turn aside the 'ain (the bad, mischievous look) from the precious beast.) (for which proofs are wanting), but to the signet which was wont to be constantly carried (Gen 38:18, cf. Song 8:6) on a string around the neck.

The parallel member 3c confirms this; 3b and 3c together put us in mind of the Tephillim (phylacteries), Ex 13:16; Deut 6:8; 11:18, in which what is here a figure is presented in external form, but as the real figure of that which is required in the inward parts. luwach (from lwach , Arab. l'ah, to begin to shine, e.g., of a shooting star, gleaming sword; vid., Wetzstein, Deutsch. morgenl. Zeitschr. xxii. 151f.) signifies the tablet prepared for writing by means of polish; to write love and fidelity on the tablet of the heart, is to impress deeply on the heart the duty of both virtues, so that one will be impelled to them from within outward (Jer 31:33).

PROVERBS. 3:4

So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

To the admonitory imper. there follows here a second, as Prov 4:4; 20:13; Amos 5:4; 2 Chron 20:20, instead of which also the perf. consec. might stand; the counsellor wishes, with the good to which he advises, at the same time to present its good results. seekel is (1 Sam 25:3) the appearance, for the Arab. shakl means forma, as uniting or binding the lineaments or contours into one figure, schee'ma , according to which Towb seekel may be interpreted of the pleasing and advantageous impression which the well-built external appearance of a man makes, as an image of that which his internal excellence produces; thus, favourable view, friendly judgment, good reputation (Ewald, Hitzig, Zöckler). But everywhere else (Prov 13:15; Ps 111:10; 2 Chron 30:22) this phrase means good, i.e., fine, well-becoming insight, or prudence; and skl has in the language of the Mishle no other meaning than intellectus, which proceeds from the inwardly forming activity of the mind. He obtains favour in the eyes of God and man, to whom favour on both sides is shown; he obtains refined prudence, to whom it is on both sides adjudicated. It is unnecessary, with Ewald and Hitzig, to assign the two objects to God and men. In the eyes of both at the same time, he who carries love and faithfulness in his heart appears as one to whom cheen and Towb seekel must be adjudicated.

PROVERBS. 3:5-7

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Were "kindness and truth" (v. 3) understood only in relation to men, then the following admonition would not be interposed, since it proceeds from that going before, if there the quality of kindness and truth, not only towards man, but also towards God, is commended: 5 Trust in Jahve with thy whole heart, And lean not on thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge Him, And He will make plain thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes; Fear Jahve, and depart from evil. 8 Health will then come to thy navel, And refreshing to thy bones.

From God alone comes true prosperity, true help. He knows the right way to the right ends. He knows what benefits us. He is able to free us from that which does us harm: therefore it is our duty and our safety to place our confidence wholly in Him, and to trust not to our own judgment. The verb baaTach , Arab. bath, has the root-meaning expandere, whence perhaps, by a more direct way than that noted under Ps 4:6, it acquires the meaning confidere, to lean with the whole body on something, in order to rest upon it, strengthened by `al , if one lean wholly-Fr. se reposer sur quelqu'un; Ital. riposarsi sopra alcuno,-like hishaa`een with 'el , to lean on anything, so as to be supported by it; with `al , to support oneself on anything (Fl.). daa`eehuw (the same in form as saa'eehuw , Num 11:12) is not fully represented by "acknowledge Him;" as in 1 Chron 28:9 it is not a mere theoretic acknowledgment that is meant, but earnest penetrating cognizance, engaging the whole man. The practico-mystical daa`eehuw , in and of itself full of significance, according to O. and N.T. usage, is yet strengthened by toto corde. The heart is the central seat of all spiritual soul-strength; to love God with the whole heart is to concentrate the whole inner life on the active contemplation of God, and the ready observance of His will. God requites such as show regard to Him, by making plain their path before them, i.e., by leading them directly to the right end, removing all hindrances out of their way. 'or|choteykaa has Cholem in the first syllable (vid., Kimchi's Lex.). (Note: In the st. constr. Prov 2:19, and with the grave suff. 2:15, o instead of oo is in order; but Ben-Asher's 'aar|chotaay , Job 13:27, cf. 33:11, is an inconsistency.) "Be not wise in thine own eyes" is equivalent to ne tibi sapiens videare; for, as J. H. Michaelis remarks, confidere Deo est sapere, sibi vero ac suae sapientiae, desipere. "Fear God and depart from evil" is the twofold representation of the euse'beia , or practical piety, in the Chokma writings: Prov 16:6, the Mashal psalm 34:10, 15, and Job 28:28 cf. Prov 1:2. For meera` caar , the post-biblical expression is cheeT|' y|ree' .

PROVERBS. 3:8

It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

The subject to t|hiy (it shall be) is just this religious-moral conduct.

The conjectural reading lib|saar|kaa (Clericus), l|sheer|kaa = lish|'eer|kaa (Ewald, Hitzig), to thy flesh or body, is unnecessary; the LXX and Syr. so translating, generalize the expression, which is not according to their taste. shor , from shaarar , Arab. sarr, to be fast, to bind fast, properly, the umbilical cord (which the Arabs call surr, whence the denom. sarra, to cut off the umbilical cord of the newborn); thus the navel, the origin of which coincides with the independent individual existence of the new-born, and is as the firm centre (cf. Arab. saryr, foundation, basis, Job, p. 487) of the existence of the body. The system of punctuation does not, as a rule, permit the doubling of r, probably on account of the prevailing half guttural, i.e., the uvular utterance of this sound by the men of Tiberias. (Note: See my work, Physiologie u. Musik in ihrer Bedeutung für Grammatik besonders die hebräische, pp. 11-13.) l|shaarekaa here, and shaareek| at Ezek 16:4, belong to the exceptions; cf. the expanded duplication in shaar|reek| , Song 7:3, to which a chief form shorer is as little to be assumed as is a haaraar to har|reey .

The ha'p gegr rip|'uwt , healing, has here, as mar|pee' , Prov 4:22; 16:24, and t|ruwpaah , Ezek 47:12, not the meaning of restoration from sickness, but the raising up of enfeebled strength, or the confirming of that which exists; the navel comes into view as the middle point of the vis vitalis. shiquwy is a Piel formation, corresponding to the abstract Kal formation rip|'uwt ; the Arab. saqâ, used transit. (to give to drink), also saqqâ (cf. Pu. Job 21:24) and asqâ, like the Hebr. hish|qaah (Hiph. of shaaqaah , to drink); the infin. (Arab.) saqy means, to the obliterating of the proper signification, distribution, benefaction, showing friendship, but in the passage before us is to be explained after Job 21:24 (the marrow of his bones is well watered; Arnheim-full of sap) and 15:30. Bertheau and Hitzig erroneously regard v. 8 as the conclusion to v. 7, for they interpret rp'wt as the subject; but had the poet wished to be so understood, he should have written uwt|hiy . Much rather the subject is devotion withdrawn from the evil one and turned to God, which externally proves itself by the dedication to Him of earthly possessions. 9 HONOUR JAHVE WITH THY WEALTH, And with the first-fruits of all thine increase: 10 Then shall thy barns be filled with plenty, And thy vats overflow with must.

PROVERBS. 3:9-10

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

It may surprise us that the Chokma, being separated from the ceremonial law, here commends the giving of tithes. But in the first place, the consciousness of the duty of giving tithes is older than the Mosaic law, Gen 28:22; in this case, the giving of tithes is here a general ethical expression. `iseer and ma`aseer do not occur in the Book of Proverbs; in the post-biblical phraseology the tithes are called hagaaboha cheeleq, the portion of the Most High. kibeer, as the Arab. wakkra, to make heavy, then to regard and deal with as weighty and solemn (opp. qileel , to regard and treat as light, from qaalal = Arab. hân, to be light). hown , properly lightness in the sense of aisance, opulency, forms with kabeed an oxymoron (fac Jovam gravem de levitate tua), but one aimed at by the author neither at Prov 1:13 nor here. min (in meehownekaa and meeree', v. 9) is in both cases partitive, as in the law of the Levitical tenths, Lev 27:30, and of the Challa (heave-offering of dough), Num 15:21, where also ree'shiyt (in Heb 7:4, akrothi'nia ) occurs in a similar sense, cf.

Num 18:12 (in the law of the Theruma or wave-offering of the priests), as also t|buw'aah in the law of the second tenths, Deut 14:22, cf. Num 18:30 (in the law of the tenths of the priests). V. 10. With w apodosis imperativi the conclusion begins. saabaa` , satisfaction, is equivalent to fulness, making satisfied, and that, too, richly satisfied; tiyrowsh also is such an accusative, as verbs of filling govern it, for paarats , to break through especially to overflow, signifies to be or become overflowingly full (Job 1:10). 'aacaam (from 'aacam , Chald. 'acan, Syr. âsan, to lay up in granaries) is the granary, of the same meaning as the Arab. âkhzan (from khazan = chaacan, Isa 23:18, recondere), whence the Spanish magazen, the French and German magazin. yeqeb (from yaaqab, Arab. wakab, to be hollow) is the vat or tub into which the must flows from the wine-press (gat or puwraah ), la'kkos or hupolee'nion . Cf. the same admonition and promise in the prophetic statement of Mal 3:10-12.

PROVERBS. 3:11-12

My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

The contrast here follows. As God should not be forgotten in days of prosperity, so one should not suffer himself to be estranged from Him by days of adversity. 11 The school of Jahve, my son, despise thou not, Nor loathe thou His correction; 12 For Jahve correcteth him whom He loveth, And that as a father his son whom he loveth Vid., the original passage Job 5:17f. There is not for the Book of Job a more suitable motto than this tetrastich, which expresses its fundamental thought, that there is a being chastened and tried by suffering which has as its motive the love of God, and which does not exclude sonship. (Note: Here Procop. rightly distinguishes between paidei'a and timoori'a .)

One may say that v. 11 expresses the problem of the Book of Job, and v. 12 its solution. muwcar , paidei'a , we have translated "school," for yicar , paideu'ein , means in reality to take one into school.

Ahndung punishment or Rüge reproof is the German word which most corresponds to the Hebr. towkeechaah or towkaachaat . b| quwts (whence here the prohibitive taaqots with 'al ) means to experience loathing (disgust) at anything, or aversion (vexation) toward anything. The LXX (cited Heb 12:5f.), meede' eklu'ou , nor be faint-hearted, which joins in to the general thought, that we should not be frightened away from God, or let ourselves be estranged from Him by the attitude of anger in which He appears in His determination to inflict suffering. In 12a the accentuation leaves it undefined whether y|haaowh as subject belongs to the relative or to the principal clause; the traditional succession of accents, certified also by Ben Bileam, is yhwh y'hb 'shr 'et ky, for this passage belongs to the few in which more than three servants (viz., Mahpach, Mercha, and three Munachs) go before the Athnach. (Note: Vid., Torath Emeth, p. 19; Accentuationssystem, vi. §6; the differences between Ben-Asher and Ben-Naphtali in the Appendixes to Biblia Rabbinica; Dachselt's Biblia Accentuata, and Pinner's Prospectus, p. 91 (Odessa, 1845).)

The further peculiarity is here to be observed, that 'et , although without the Makkeph, retains its Segol, besides here only in Ps. 47:5; 60:2. 12b is to be interpreted thus (cf. Prov 9:5b): "and (that) as a father the son, whom he loves." The w is explanatory, as 1 Sam 28:3 (Gesenius, §155, 1a), and yir|tseh (which one may supplement by 'otow or bow ) is a defining clause having the force of a clause with 'shr . The translation et ut pater qui filio bene cupit, is syntactically (cf.

Isa 40:11) and accentually (vid., 13b) not less admissible, but translating "and as a father he holds his son dear," or with Hitzig (after Jer 31:10, a passage not quite syntactically the same), "and holds him dear, as a father his son" (which Zöckler without syntactical authority prefers on account of the 2nd modus, cf. e.g., Ps 51:18), does not seem a right parallel clause, since the giving of correction is the chief point, and the love only the accompanying consideration (13:24). According to our interpretation, yowkiyach is to be carried forward in the mind from 12a. The LXX find the parallel word in yk'b, for they translate mastigoi' de' pa'nta uhio'n ho'n parade'chetai, and thus have read y|kee'eeb or w|yak|'ib.

PROVERBS. 3:13-14

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

Such submission to God, the All-wise, the All-directing, who loves us with fatherly affection, is wisdom, and such wisdom is above all treasures. 13 Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, And the man who has gained understanding; 14 For better is her acquisition than the acquisition of silver, And her gain than fine gold. 15 More precious is she than corals; And all thy jewels do not equal her value.

The imperfect yaapiyq , which as the Hiph. of puwq , exire, has the general meaning educere, interchanges with the perfect maatsaa' . This bringing forth is either a delivering up, i.e., giving out or presenting, Isa 58:10; Ps 140:9; 144:13 (cf. n|paq , Arab. naftak, to give out, to pay out), or a fetching out, getting out, receiving, Prov 8:35; 12:2; 18:22. Thus 13a reminds one of the parable of the treasure in the field, and 13b of that of the goodly pearl for which the e'mporos who sought the pearl parted with all that he had. Here also is declared the promise of him who trades with a merchant for the possession of wisdom; for cach|raah and c|char (both, as Isa 23:3,18; 45:15, from cachar , the latter after the forms z|ra` , n|Ta` , without our needing to assume a second primary form, caachaar) go back to the root-word caachar, to trade, go about as a trader, with the fundamental meaning emporeu'esthai (LXX); and also the mention of the pearls is not wanting here, for at all events the meaning "pearls" has blended itself with p|niyniym , which is a favourite word in the Mashal poetry, though it be not the original meaning of the word. In 14b kecep is surpassed by chaaruwts (besides in the Proverbs, found only in this meaning in Ps 68:14), which properly means ore found in a mine, from chaarats , to cut in, to dig up, and hence the poetic name of gold, perhaps of gold dug out as distinguished from molten gold. Hitzig regards chruso's as identical with it; but this word (Sanskr. without the ending hir, Zench. zar) is derived from ghar, to glitter (vid., Curtius). t|buw'aataah we have translated "gain," for it does not mean the profit which wisdom brings, the tribute which it yields, but the gain, the possession of wisdom herself.

PROVERBS. 3:15

She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.

As regards p|niyniym , for which the Kethîb has p|niyiym, the following things are in favour of the fundamental meaning "corals," viz.: (1.) The name itself, which corresponds with the Arab. fann; this word, proceeding from the root-idea of shooting forth, particularly after the manner of plants, means the branch and all that raises or multiplies itself branch-like or twig-like (Fleischer). (2.) The redness attributed to the pnynym, Lam 4:7, in contradistinction to the pure whiteness attributed to snow and milk (vid., at Job 28:18). The meaning of the word may, however, have become generalized in practice (LXX in loc. li'thoon poluteloo'n , Braec. Venet. lithidi'oon); the meaning "pearls," given to it in the Job-Targum by Rashi, and particularly by Bochart, lay so much the nearer as one may have wrought also corals and precious stones, such as the carbuncle, sardius, and sapphire, into the form of pearls. y|qaaraah , in consequence of the retrogression of the tone, has Munach on the penult., and that as an exception, as has been remarked by the Masora, since in substantives and proper names terminating in aa-h the 'chwr ncwg, i.e., the receding of the tone, does not elsewhere appear, e.g., hiy' yaapaah , Gen 12:14, hiy' baaraah , Song 6:9, hiy' tsaaraah , Jer 30:7. cheepets is first abstr., a being inclined to something, lust, will, pleasure in anything, then also concr., anything in which one has pleasure, what is beautiful, precious; cf.

Arab. nfîs, _hyy, hence hjârt nfîst, precious stones" (Fleischer). shaawaah with b| means to be an equivalent (purchase-price, exchange) for anything; the most natural construction in Arab. as well as in Hebr. is that with l|, to be the equivalent of a thing (vid., at Job 33:27); the b| is the Beth pretii, as if one said in Arab.: biabi anta thou art in the estimate of my father, I give it for thee. One distinctly perceives in vv. 14, 15, the echo of Job 28. This tetrastich occurs again with a slight variation at Prov 8:10-11.

The Talmud and the Midrash accent it so, that in the former the expression is wklch-ptsym, and in the latter wklch-ptsyk, and they explain the latter of precious stones and pearls (wmrglywt Twbwt 'bnym).

PROVERBS. 3:16-18

Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

That wisdom is of such incomparable value is here confirmed: 16 Length of days is in her right hand; In her left, riches and honour. 17 Her ways are pleasant ways, And all her paths are peace. 18 A tree of life is she to those that lay hold upon her, And he who always holdeth her fast is blessed.

As in the right hand of Jahve, according to Ps 16:11, are pleasures for evermore, so Wisdom holds in her right hand "length of days," viz., of the days of life, thus life, the blessing of blessings; in her left, riches and honour (Prov 8:18), the two good things which, it is true, do not condition life, but, received from Wisdom, and thus wisely, elevate the happiness of life-in the right hand is the chief good, in the left the prosthee'kee , Matt 6:33. Didymus: Per sapientiae dextram divinarum rerum cognitio, ex qua immortalitatis vita oritur, significatur; per sinistram autem rerum humanarum notitia, ex qua gloria opumque abundantia nascitur. The LXX, as between 15a and 15b, so also here after v. 16, interpolate two lines: "From her mouth proceedeth righteousness; justice and mercy she bears upon her tongue,"-perhaps translated from the Hebr., but certainly added by a reader.

Verse 17-18. dar|keey-no`am are ways on which one obtains what is agreeable to the inner and the outer man, and which it does good to enjoy.

The parallel shaalowm is not a genitive to n|tiybowt to be supplied; that paths of Wisdom are themselves shaalowm , for she brings well-being on all sides and deep inwards satisfaction (peace). In regard to n|tiybaah , via eminens, elata, Schultens is right (vid., under Prov 1:15); (Note: The root is not tb, to grope, but nt; whence Arab. natt, to bubble up, natâ, to raise oneself, to swell up, etc.) n|tiybowteyhaa has Munach, and instead of the Metheg, Tarcha, vid., under 1:31b. The figure of the tree of life the fruit of which brings immortality, is, as 11:30; 15:4 (cf. 13:12), Rev 2:7, taken from the history of paradise in the Book of Genesis. The old ecclesiastical saying, Lignum vitae crux Christi, accommodates itself in a certain measure, through Matt 11:19; Luke 11:49, with this passage of the Book of Proverbs. b| hecheziyq means to fasten upon anything, more fully expressed in Gen 21:18, to bind the hand firm with anything, to seize it firmly. They who give themselves to Wisdom, come to experience that she is a tree of life whose fruit contains and communicates strength of life, and whoever always keeps fast hold of Wisdom is blessed, i.e., to be pronounced happy (Ps 41:3, vid., under Ps 137:8). The predicate m|'ushaar , blessed, refers to each one of the tom|keyhaa , those who hold her, cf. Prov 27:16; Num 24:9. It is the so-called distributive singular of the predicate, which is freely used particularly in those cases where the plur. of the subject is a participle (vid., under v. 35).

FIFTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 3:19-26

The World-Creative Wisdom as Mediatrix of Divine Protection O son, guard against seducers (Prov 1:8ff.); listen to the warning voice of Wisdom (1:20ff.); seek after Wisdom: she is the way to God, comes from God, and teaches thee to shun the wicked way and to walk in the way that is good (2); thou shalt obtain her if, renouncing self-confidence, thou givest thyself unreservedly to God (3:1-18)-these are the four steps, so far, of this introductory parai'nesis. Each discourse contributes its own to present vividly and impressively what Wisdom is and what she procures, her nature and her blessings. From her hand come all good gifts of God to men.

She is the tree of life. Her place between God and men is thus that of a mediatrix.

PROVERBS. 3:19-26

The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

Verse 19,20. This place of a mediatrix-the speaker here now continues-she had from the beginning. God's world-creating work was mediated by her: 19 Jahve hath by wisdom founded the earth, Established the heavens by understanding. 20 By His knowledge the water-floods broke forth, And the sky dropped down dew.

That wisdom is meant by which God planned the world-idea, and now also wrought it out; the wisdom in which God conceived the world ere it was framed, and by which also He gave external realization to His thoughts; the wisdom which is indeed an attribute of God and a characteristic of His actions, since she is a property of His nature, and His nature attests itself in her, but not less, as appears, not from this group of tetrastichs, but from all that has hitherto been said, and form the personal testimony, Prov 8:22ff., of which it is the praeludium, she goes forth as a divine power to which God has given to have life in herself. Considered apart from the connection of these discourses, this group of verses, as little as Jer 10:2; Ps 104:24, determines regarding the attributive interpretation; the Jerusalem Targum, I, when it translates, Gen 1:1, br'shyt by b|chuwk|maa' (b|chuwk|m|taa'), combines 8:22 with such passages as this before us. yaacad (here with the tone thrown back) properly signifies, like the Arab. wasad, to lay fast, to found, for one gives to a fact the firm basis of its existence. The parallel Pil. of kuwn (Arab. kân, cogn. khn , see on Isaiah, p. 691) signifies to set up, to restore; here equivalent to, to give existence.

Verse 20. It is incorrect to understand 20a, with the Targ., of division, i.e., separating the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament; nib|qa` is spoken of water, especially of its breaking forth, Gen 7:11; Ex 14:21, cf. Ps 74:15, properly dividing itself out, i.e., welling forth from the bowels of the earth; it means, without distinguishing the primordial waters and the later water-floods confined within their banks (cf. Job 38:8f., Ps 104:6-8), the overflowing of the earth for the purpose of its processes of cultivation and the irrigation of the land. t|howmowt (from huwm = haamaah , to groan, to roar) are chiefly the internal water stores of the earth, Gen 49:25; Ps 33:7.

But while 20a is to be understood of the waters under the firmament, 20b is to be interpreted of those above. sh|chaaqiym (from shaachaq , Arab. shak, comminuere, attenuare) properly designates the uppermost stratum of air thinly and finely stretching itself far and wide, and then poetically the clouds of heaven (vid., under Ps 77:18). Another name, `ariypiym, comes from `aarap , which is transposed from raa`ap (here used in 20b), Arab. r'af, to drop, to run. The Taal added on the object accusative represents synecdochically all the waters coming down from heaven and fructifying the earth. This watering proceeds from above (wr`pw); on the contrary, the endowing of the surface of the earth with great and small rivers is a fundamental fact in creation (nbq`w).

Verse 21-22. From this eminence, in which the work of creation presents wisdom, exhortations are now deduced, since the writer always expresses himself only with an ethical intention regarding the nature of wisdom: 21 My son, may they not depart from thine eyes- Preserve thoughtfulness and consideration, 22 And they will be life to thy soul And grace to thy neck.

If we make the synonyms of wisdom which are in 21b the subject per prolepsin to 'al-yaaluzuw (Hitzig and Zöckler), then 19-20 and 21-22 clash. The subjects are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, which belong to God, and shall from His become the possession of those who make them their aim. Regarding luwz , obliquari, deflectere, see under Prov 2:15, cf. 4:21; regarding tushiyaah (here defective after the Masora, as rightly in Vened. 1515, 1521, and Nissel, 1662), see at 2:7; yaaluzuw for taaloz|naah , see at 3:2b. The LXX (cf. Heb 2:1) translate without distinctness of reference: uhie' mee' pararrhuee's pararuee's), let it now flow past, i.e., let it not be unobserved, hold it always before thee; the Targ. with the Syr. render nizal laa', ne vilescat, as if the words were 'alyaazuwluw.

In 22a the synallage generis is continued: w|yih|yuw for w|tih|yeynaah . Regarding gar|g|rot, see at Prov 1:9. By wisdom the soul gains life, divinely true and blessed, and the external appearance of the man grace, which makes him pleasing and gains for him affection.

Verse 23-26. But more than this, wisdom makes its possessor in all situations of life confident in God: 23 Then shalt thou go thy way with confidence, And thy foot shall not stumble. 24 When thou liest down, thou are not afraid, But thou layest thyself down and hast sweet sleep. 25 Thou needest not be afraid of sudden alarm, Nor for the storm of the wicked when it breaketh forth. 26 For Jahve will be thy confidence And keep thy foot from the snare.

The laabeTach (cf. our "bei guter Laune" = in good cheer), with l of the condition, is of the same meaning as the conditional adverbial accusative beTach , Prov 10:9; 1:33. V. 23b the LXX translate ho de' pou's sou ou mee' prosko'psee , while, on the contrary, at Ps 91:12 they make the person the subject (mee'pote prosko'psees to'n k.t.l); here also we retain more surely the subject from 23a, especially since for the intrans. of naagap (to smite, to push) a Hithpa. hit|nageep is used Jer 13:16. In v. 24 there is the echo of Job 11:18, and in v. 25 of Job 5:21. 24b is altogether the same as Job 5:24b: et decumbes et suavis erit somnus tuus = is deculueris, suavis erit. The hypothetic perf., according to the sense, is both there and at Job 11:18 (cf. Jer 20:9) oxytoned as perf. consec. Similar examples are Prov 6:22; Gen 33:13; 1 Sam 25:31, cf.

Ewald, §357a. aa`r|baah (of sleep as Jer 31:26) is from `aareeb , which in Hebr. is used of pleasing impressions, as the Arab. 'ariba of a lively, free disposition. sheenaah , somnus (nom. actionis from yaasheen , with the ground-form sina preserved in the Arab. lidat, vid., Job, p. 284, note), agrees in inflexion with shaanaah , annus. 'al , v. 25a, denies, like Ps 121:3, with emphasis: be afraid only not = thou hast altogether nothing to fear. Schultens rightly says: Subest species prohibitionis et tanquam abominationis, ne tale quicquam vel in suspicionem veniat in mentemve cogitando admittatur. pachad here means terror, as Prov 1:26f., the terrific object; pit|'om (with the accus. om) is the virtual genitive, as 26:2 chinaam (with accus. am).

Regarding sho'aah , see under 1:27.

The genitive r|shaa`iym may be, after Ps 37:18, the genit. subjecti, but still it lies nearer to say that he who chooses the wisdom of God as his guiding star has no ground to fear punishment as transgressors have reason to fear it; the sho'aah is meant which wisdom threatens against transgressors, Prov 1:27. He needs have no fear of it, for wisdom is a gift of God, and binds him who receives it to the giver: Jahve becomes and is henceforth his confidence. Regarding b essentiae, which expresses the closest connection of the subject with the predicate which it introduces, see under Ps 35:2. As here, so also at Ex 18:4; Ps 118:7; 146:6, the predicate is a noun with a pronominal suffix. kecel is, as at Ps 78:7; Job 31:24, cognate to mib|Taach and miq|weh , (Note: According to Malbim, tiq|waah is the expectation of good, and kecel , confidence in the presence of evil.) the object and ground of confidence. That the word in other connections may mean also fool-hardiness, Ps 49:14, and folly, Eccl 7:25 (cf. regarding k|ciyl , which in Arab. as belîd denotes the dull, in Hebr. fools, see under Prov 1:22), it follows that it proceeds from the fundamental conception of fulness of flesh and of fat, whence arise the conceptions of dulness and slothfulness, as well as of confidence, whether confidence in self or in God (see Schultens l.c., and Wünsche's Hosea, p. 207f.). leked is taking, catching, as in a net or trap or pit, from laakad , to catch (cf. Arab. lakida, to fasten, III, IV to hold fast); another rootmeaning, in which Arab. lak connects itself with nak, nk, to strike, to assail (whence al-lakdat, the assault against the enemy, Deutsch. Morgenl.

Zeitsch. xxii. 140), is foreign to the Hebr. Regarding the mn of mlkd, Fleischer remarks: "The min after the verbs of guarding, preserving, like shmr and ntsr , properly expresses that one by those means holds or seeks to hold a person or thing back from something, like the Lat. defendere, tueri aliquem ab hostibus, a perculo." (Note: Hitzig rejects Prov 3:22-26 as a later interpolation. And why?

Because 3, which he regards as a complete discourse, consists of twice ten verses beginning with b|niy . In addition to this symmetry other reasons easily reveal themselves to his penetration. But the discourses contained in ch. 1-9 do not all begin with bny (vid., 1:20); and when it stands in the beginning of the discourse, it is not always the first word (vid., 1:8); and when it occurs as the first word or in the first line, it does not always commence a new discourse (vid., 1:15 in the middle of the first, 3:11 in the middle of the fourth); and, moreover, the Hebr. poetry and oratory does not reckon according to verses terminated by Soph Pasuk, which are always accented distichs, but they in reality frequently consist of three or more lines. The rejected verses are in nothing unlike those that remain, and which are undisputed; they show the same structure of stichs, consisting for the most part of three, but sometimes also only of two words (cf. 3:22b with 1:9b, 10b), the same breadth in the course of the thoughts, and the same accord with Job and Deuteronomy.)

SIXTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 3:27-35

Exhortation to Benevolence and Rectitude The promise in which it terminates, designates the close of the fifth discourse. The sixth differs from it in this, that, like none of the preceding, it adds proverb to proverb. The first series recommends love to one's neighbour, and the second warns against fellowship with the uncharitable.

PROVERBS. 3:27-35

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

Verse 27-28. The first illustration of neighbourly love which is recommended, is readiness to serve: 27 Refuse no manner of good to him to whom it is due When it is in thy power to do it. 28 Say not to thy neighbour, "Go, and come again, To-morrow I will give it," whilst yet thou hast it.

Regarding the intensive plur. b|`aalaayw with a sing. meaning, see under Prov 1:19. The form of expression without the suffix is not ba`aleey but Towb ba`al ; and this denotes here, not him who does good (b`l as Arab. dhw or tsahb), but him to whom the good deed is done (cf. 17:8), i.e., as here, him who is worthy of it (b`l as Arab. âhl), him who is the man for it (Jewish interp.: lw r'wy shchw' my). We must refuse nothing good (nothing either legally or morally good) to him who has a right to it (min maana` as Job 22:7; 31:16), (Note: Accentuate Ewb 'l-tmna`, not 'l-tmn`-Twb. The doubling of the Makkeph is purposeless, and, on the contrary, the separating of Twb from mb`lyw by the Dechi (the separating accent subordinate to Athnach) is proper. It is thus in the best MSS.) if we are in a condition to do him this good.

The phrase yaadiy yesh-l|'eel, Gen 31:29, and frequently, signifies: it is belonging to (practicable) the power of my hand, i.e., I have the power and the means of doing it. As zeed signifies the haughty, insolent, but may be also used in the neuter of insolent conduct (vid., Ps 19:14), so 'eel signifies the strong, but also (although only in this phrase) strength.

The Keri rejects the plur. yaadeykaa , because elsewhere the hand always follows l|'eel in the singular. But it rejects the plur. l|ree`eykaa (v. 28) because the address following is directed to one person. Neither of these emendations was necessary. The usage of the language permits exceptions, notwithstanding the usus tyrannus, and the plur. lr`yk may be interpreted distributively: to thy fellows, it may be this one or that one. Hitzig also regards lr`yk as a singular; but the masc. of ra`|yaah , the ground-form of which is certainly ra'j, is ree`eh , or shorter, reea` . waashuwb leek| does not mean: forth! go home again! but: go, and come again. shuwb , to come again, to return to something, to seek it once more. (Note: Thus also (Arab.) raj' is used in Thaalebi's Confidential Companion, p. 24, line 3, of Flügel's ed. Admission was prevented to one Haschmid, then angry he sought it once more; he was again rejected, then he sought it not again (Arab. flm yraj'), but says, etc.

Flügel has misunderstood the passage. Fleischer explains raj', with reference to Prov 3:28, by revenir à la charge.)

The w of 'itaak| w|yeesh is, as 29b, the conditional: quum sit penes te, sc. quod ei des. "To-morrow shall I give" is less a promise than a delay and putting off, because it is difficult for him to alienate himself from him who makes the request. This holding fast by one's own is unamiable selfishness; this putting off in the fulfilment of one's duty is a sin of omission-ou ga'r oi'das , as the LXX adds, ti' te'xetai hee epiou'sa . Verse 29. A second illustration of neighbourly love is harmlessness:

Devise not evil against thy neighbour, While he dwelleth securely by thee.

The verb chaarash , chara'ssein, signifies to cut into, and is used of the faber ferrarius as well as of the tignarius (Isaiah, p. 463), who with a cutting instrument (choreesh , Gen 4:22) works with metal or wood, and from his profession is called chaaraash . But the word means as commonly to plough, i.e., to cut with the plough, and choreesh is used also of a ploughman, and, without any addition to it, it always has this meaning. It is then a question whether the metaphorical phrase raa`aah chaarash signifies to fabricate evil, cf. dolorum faber, mendacia procudere, pseudoo'n kai' apatoo'n te'ktoon , and the Homeric kaka' fresi' bussodomeu'ein (Fleischer and most others), or to plough evil (Rashi, Ewald, etc.). The Targ., Syriac, and Jerome translate chshb , without deciding the point, by moliri; but the LXX and Graecus Venet. by tektai'nein.

The correctness of these renderings is not supported by Ezek. 21:36, where mash|chiyt chaaraasheey are not such as fabricate destruction, but smiths who cause destruction; also machariysh , Sam 23:9, proves nothing, and probably does not at all appertain to chrsh inciddere (Keil), but to chrsh silere, in the sense of dolose moliri. On the one hand, it is to be observed from Job 4:8; Hos 10:13, cf.

Ps 129:3, that the meaning arare malum might connect itself with raa`aah chaarash ; and the proverb of Sirach 7:12, mee' arotri'a pseu'dos ep' adelfoo' sou , places this beyond a doubt. Therefore in this phrase, if one keeps before him a clear perception of the figure, at one time the idea of fabricating, at another that of ploughing, is presented before us. The usage of the language in the case before us is more in favour of the latter than of the former. Whether 'eet yaashab means to dwell together with, or as Böttcher, to sit together with, after Ps 1:1; 26:4f., need not be a matter of dispute. It means in general a continued being together, whether as sitting, Job 2:13, or as dwelling, Judg 17:11. (Note: Accentuate lbeTch whw'-ywsheeb. It is thus in correct texts.

The Rebia Mugrash is transformed, according to the Accentuationssystem, xviii. §2.)

To take advantage of the regardlessness of him who imparts to us his confidence is unamiable. Love is doubly owing to him who resigns himself to it because he believes in it.

Verse 30. A third illustration of the same principle is peaceableness: Contend not with a man without a cause, When he has inflicted no evil upon thee.

Instead of taaruwb, or as the Kerî has amended it taariyb , the abbreviated form taarob or taareeb would be more correct after 'al ; ruwb or wiyb (from rb , to be compact) means to fall upon one another, to come to hand-blows, to contend. Contending and quarrelling with a man, whoever he may be, without sufficient reason, ought to be abandoned; but there exists no such reason if he has done me no harm which I have to reproach him with. raa`aah gaamal with the accus. or dat. of the person signifies to bring evil upon any one, malum inferre, or also referre (Schultens), for gaamal (cogn. gaamar ) signifies to execute, to complete, accomplish-both of the initiative and of the requital, both of the anticipative and of the recompensing action; here in the former of these senses.

Verse 31-32. These exhortations to neighbourly love in the form of warning against whatever is opposed to it, are followed by the warning against fellowship with the loveless: 31 Be not envious toward the man of violence, And have no pleasure in all his ways. 32 For an abhorrence to Jahve is the perverse, But with the upight is His secret.

The conceptions of jealousy and envy lie in qinee' (derived by Schultens from qaanaa' , Arab. kanâ, intensius rubere) inseparable from each other. The LXX, which for tqn' reads tqnh (ktee'see ), brings the envy into 31b, as if the words here were w|'al-tit|char, as in Ps 37:1,7 (there the LXX has mee' parazee'lou, here meede' zeeloo'sees).

There is no reason for correcting our text in accordance with this (substituting tit|char for tib|char as Hitzig does), because b|kaal-d|raakaayw would be too vague an expression for the object of the envy, while 'l-tbchr altogether agrees with it; and the contrary remark, that bakol b|char is fundamentally no bchr , fails since (1) bchr frequently expresses pleasure in anything without the idea of choice, and (2) "have not pleasure in all his ways" is in the Hebrew style equivalent to "in any one of his ways;" Ewald, §323b.

He who does "violence to the law" (Zeph 3:4) becomes thereby, according to the common course of the world, a person who is feared, whose authority, power, and resources are increased, but one must not therefore envy him, nor on any side take pleasure in his conduct, which in all respects is to be reprobated; for the naalowz , inflexus, tortuosus (vid., Prov 2:15), who swerves from the right way and goes in a crooked false way, is an object of Jahve's abhorrence, while, on the contrary, the just, who with a right mind walks in the right way, is Jahve's cowd - an echo of Ps 25:14. cowd (R. cd, to be firm, compressed) means properly the being pressed together, or sitting together (cf. the Arab. wisâd, wisâdt, a cushion, divan, corresponding in form to the Hebr. y|cowd ) for the purpose of private communication and conversation (hiuwaaceed), and then partly the confidential intercourse, as here (cf. Job 29:4), partly the private communication, the secret (Amos 3:7). LXX, en de' dikai'ois ou ] sunedria'zei . Those who are out of the way, who prefer to the simplicity of right-doing all manner of crooked ways, are contrary to God, and He may have nothing to do with them; but the right-minded He makes partakers of His most intimate intercourse, He deals with them as His friends.

Verse 33. The prosperity of the godless, far from being worthy of envy, has as its reverse side the curse: The curse of Jahve is in the house of the godless, And the dwelling of the just He blesseth. m|'eeraach (a curse), like m|cilaah (a highway, from caalal ), is formed from 'aarar (cf. Arab. harr, detestari, abhorrere, a wordimitation of an interjection used in disagreeable experiences). The curse is not merely a deprivation of external goods which render life happy, and the blessing is not merely the fulness of external possessions; the central- point of the curse lies in continuous disquiet of conscience, and that of the blessing in the happy consciousness that God is with us, in soul-rest and peace which is certain of the grace and goodness of God. The poetic naaweh (from nwh = Arab. nwy, tetendit aliquo) signifies the place of settlement, and may be a word borrowed from a nomad life, since it denotes specially the pasture-ground; cf. Prov 24:15 (Fleischer). While the curse of God rests in the house of the wicked (vid., Köhler on Zech 5:4), He blesses, on the contrary, the dwelling-place of the righteous. The LXX and Jerome read y|borak| , but y|baark| is more agreeable, since God continues to be the subject.

Verse 34. His relation to men is determined by their relation to Him. As for the scorners, He scorneth them, But to the lowly He giveth grace.

Most interpreters render the verse thus: "If the scorner He (even He, in return) scorneth, so He (on the other hand) giveth grace to the lowly." For the sequence of the words in the consequence, in which the precedence of the verb is usual, e.g., Lev 12:5, we are referred to 23:18, cf. Prov 24:14; but why had the poet placed the two facts in the relation of condition and consequence? The one fact is not the consequence but the reverse of the other, and accordingly they are opposed to each other in coordinated passages, Ps 18:26f. The Vav in such antitheses has generally the meaning of "and on the other hand," e.g., Job 8:20, while the LXX, Targ., Syriac, and Jerome altogether pass over the 'im as if it did not exist. Ziegler translates: "Truly! the scorner He scorneth;" but an affirmative 'im does not exist, the asseveration after the manner of an oath is negative.

Bertheau's expedient would be more acceptable, by which he makes the whole of v. 34 the protasis to v. 35; but if this were intended, another subject would not enter into v. 35.

Thus 34a and 34b are two independent parallel passages; 'im-laleetsiym is the protasis: if as regards the scorners, i.e., if His conduct is directed to the scorners, so He scorneth. The l denotes relation, and in this elliptical usage is like the l of superscription, e.g., Jer 23:9. huw' is the emphatic auto's : He on the contrary, and in a decisive way (Ewald, §314ab).

Instead of yaaliyts there might have been used y|liytseem (for heeliyts, where it occurs as a governing word, has the accusative, Prov 19:28; Ps 119:51), but we do not miss the object: if it relates to scorners (thus also Löwenstein translates), so it is He in return who scorneth. The LXX renders it: ku'rios hupereefa'nois antita'ssetai tapeinoi's de' di'doosi cha'rin ; cf. James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5. huw' is used as a name of God (Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr. xvi. 400), on which account it is rendered like yhwh by ku'rios .

A huperee'fanos (appearing above others, i.e., overbearing) is the leets , according to the definition Prov 21:24. the expression of the talio is generalized in antita'ssetai (resists them). For `nyym the Kerî has `anaawiym : `aanaaw (from `aanaah , the groundform `aanaw, Arab. 'anaw) is the lowly (tapeino's ), or he who bends himself, i.e., the gentle and humble, the patient, and the passive `aaniy , he who is bowed down, the suffering; but the limits of the conception are moveable, since in `ny is presupposed the possession of fruit-virtues gained in the school of affliction.

Verse 35. This group of the proverbs of wisdom now suitably closes with the fundamental contrast between the wise and fools: The wise shall inherit honour, But fools carry away shame.

If we take uwk|ciyliym as the object, then we can scarcely interpret the clause: shame sweeps fools away (Umbreit, Zöckler, Bertheau), for heeriym \Hiph. of ruwm ] signifies (Isa 57:14; Ezek 21:31) "to raise up anything high and far," not "to sweep away." Preferable is the rendering: tou's d' a'fronas hupsoi' atimi'a (Graec. Venet., and similarly Jerome), i.e., only to it do they owe their celebrity as warning examples (Ewald), to which Oetinger compares "whose glory is in their shame," Phil 3:19; (Note: Jona Gerundi renders it otherwise: "But shame raises the fools high;" i.e., only the infamous, he who has no sense of honour, makes much advancement out of fools.) but qaalown is the contrary of kaabowd (glory, Hab 2:16), and therefore is as much an object conception as is the latter, 35a. If it is the object, then if we take meeriym from meer after the form of leen, Neh 13:21 = m|miyriym (Hos 4:7), it might be rendered: Yet fools exchange shame (Löwenstein).

But muwr , like the Arab. mrr, transire, means properly to pass over or to wander over; it is intransitive, and only in Hiph. signifies actively to exchange. meeriym thus will be the participle of heeriym ; the plur. taken distributively (fools = whoever is only always a fool) is connected with the singular of the predicate. This change in the number is here, however, more difficult than at Prov 3:18, and in other places, where the plur. of the part. permits the resolution into a relative clause with quicunque, and more difficult than at 28:1, where the sing. of the predicate is introduced by attraction; wherefore mrym may be an error in transcribing for mrymym or mrymy (Böttcher). J. H. Michaelis (after the Targ. and Syr.) has properly rendered the clause: "stulti tollunt ignominiam tanquam portionem suam," adding "quae derivato nomine trwmh dicitur." hrym signifies, in the language of the sacrificial worship and of worship generally, to lift off from anything the best portion, the legitimate portion due to God and the priesthood (vid., at 3:9); for which reason Rashi glosses mrym by lw mprysh, and Ralbag by lch mgbyh. See 14:29. Honour is that which the wise inherit, it falls to them unsought as a possession, but fools receive shame as the offal (viz., of their foolish conduct). The fut. and part. are significantly interchanged. The life of the wise ends in glory, but fools inherit shame; the fruit of their conduct is shame and evermore shame.

SEVENTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, 4:1-5:6 Recollections of His Father's House The means are not yet exhausted by which the teacher of wisdom seeks to procure acceptance for his admonitions and warnings, and to give them emphasis. He has introduced the importance of his person in order that he might gain the heart of the disciple, and has presented as speaker, instead of himself, the revered person of Wisdom herself, who seeks to win, by means of warnings and promises, the souls of men.

PROVERBS. 4:1-4

Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

Verse 1-4. He now confirms and explains the command to duty which he has placed at the beginning of the whole (Prov 1:8). This he does by his own example, for he relates from the history of his own youth, to the circle of disciples by whom he sees himself surrounded, what good doctrine his parents had taught him regarding the way of life: 1 Hear, ye sons, the instruction of a father, And attend that ye may gain understanding; 2 For I give to you good doctrine, Forsake not my direction! 3 For I was a son to my father, A tender and only (son) in the sight of my mother. 4 And he instructed me, and said to me: "Let thine heart hold fast my words:

Observe my commandments and live!" That baaniym in the address comes here into the place of b|niy , hitherto used, externally denotes that bny in the progress of these discourses finds another application: the poet himself is so addressed by his father. Intentionally he does not say 'abiykem (cf. Prov 1:8): he does not mean the father of each individual among those addressed, but himself, who is a father in his relation to them as his disciples; and as he manifests towards them fatherly love, so also he can lay claim to paternal authority over them. laada`at is rightly vocalized, not l|da`at. The words do not give the object of attention, but the design, the aim. The combination of ideas in biynaah da`at (cf. 1:2), which appears to us singular, loses its strangeness when we remember that d`t means, according to its etymon, deposition or reception into the conscience and life.

Regarding leqach , apprehension, reception, lesson = doctrine, vid., Prov 1:5. naatatiy is the perf., which denotes as fixed and finished what is just now being done, Gesenius, §126, 4. `aazab is here synonym of naaTash , 1:8, and the contrary of shaamar , 28:4. The relative factum in the perfect, designating the circumstances under which the event happened, regularly precedes the chief factum wayoreeniy ; see under Gen 1:2f. Superficially understood, the expression 3a would be a platitude; the author means that the natural legal relation was also confirming itself as a moral one. It was a relation of many-sided love, according to 3a: he was esteemed of his mother-lip|neey , used of the reflex in the judgment, Gen 10:9, and of loving care, Gen 17:18, means this-as a tender child, and therefore tenderly to be protected (rak| as Gen 33:13), and as an only child, whether he were so in reality, or was only loved as if he were so. yaachiyd (Aq., Sym., Theod., monogenee's ) may with reference to number also mean unice dilectus (LXX agapoo'menos ); cf. Gen 22:2, y|chiyd|kaa (where the LXX translate to'n agapeeto'n , without therefore having y|diyd|kaa before them). lpny is maintained by all the versions; lib|neey is not a variant. (Note: In some editions lib|neey is noted as Kerî to lpny , but erroneously and contrary to the express evidence of the Masora, which affirms that there are two passages in which we ought to read not lpny , but lbny , viz., Ps 80:3 and Prov 4:3.)

The instruction of the father begins with the jussive, which is pointed (Note: The writing of yit|maak|- with the grave Metheg (Gaja) and Kametz-Chatuph (o) is that of Ben Asher; on the other hand, yit|mok|- with Cholem (oo) and the permanent Metheg is that of Ben Naphtali; vid., Michlol 21a (under the verbal form 25), §30.) yit|maak|- to distinguish it from yit|mok|- on account of the o. The LXX has incorrectly ereide'too, as if the word were ycmk; Symmachus has correctly kateche'too . The imper. wech|yeeh is, as Prov 7:2; Gen 20:7, more than w|tich|yeh; the teacher seeks, along with the means, at the same time their object: Observe my commandments, and so become a partaker of life! The Syriac, however, adds `eeyneykaa k|'iyshown w|towraatiy and my instruction as the apple of thine eye, a clause borrowed from 7:2.

PROVERBS. 4:5-6

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

The exhortation of the father now specializes itself: 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; Forget not and turn not from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake her not, so shall she preserve thee; Love her, so shall she keep thee.

Wisdom and understanding are (5a) thought of as objects of merchandise (cf. Prov 23:23; 3:14), like the one pearl of great price, Matt 13:46, and the words of fatherly instruction (5b), accordingly, as offering this precious possession, or helping to the acquisition of it. One cannot indeed say correctly mee'im|reey-py 'l-tshkch, but 'mry-py mish|mor 'l-tshkch (Ps 102:5); and in this sense 'al-tish|kach goes before, or also the accus. object, which in 'l-tskch the author has in his mind, may, since he continues with 'al-teeT, now not any longer find expression as such. That the 'mry-py are the means of acquiring wisdom is shown in v. 6, where this continues to be the primary idea. The verse, consisting of only four words, ought to be divided by Mugrash; (Note: According to correct readings in codd. and older editions, wtsmreaaki has also indeed Rebia Mugrash, and 'eaabeaach, Mercha (with Zinnorith); vid., Torath Emeth, p. 47, §6; Accentuationssystem, xviii. §1, 2; and regarding the Zinnorith, see Liber Psalmorum Hebraicus by S. Baer, p. xii.) the Vav (w) in both halves of the verse introduces the apodosis imperativi (cf. e.g., Prov 3:9f., and the apodosis prohibitivi, 3:21f.). The actual representation of wisdom, v. 5, becomes in v. 6 personal.

PROVERBS. 4:7-9

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Referring to v. 5, the father further explains that wisdom begins with the striving after it, and that this striving is itself its fundamental beginning: 7 The beginning of wisdom is "Get wisdom," And with (um, at the price of) all thou hast gotten get understanding, 8 Esteem her, so shall she lift thee up; She will bring thee honour if thou dost embrace her. 9 She will put on thine head a graceful garland, She will bestow upon thee a glorious diadem.

In the motto of the book, Prov 1:7, the author would say that the fear of Jahve is that from which all wisdom takes its origin. y|haaowh yir|'at (1:7) is the subject, and as such it stands foremost. Here he means to say what the beginning of wisdom consists in. chaak|maah ree'shiyt is the subject, and stands forth as such. The predicate may also be read q|noh-chaak|maah (= q|nowt ), after 16:16. The beginning of wisdom is (consists in) the getting of wisdom; but the imperative q|neeh , which also Aq., Sym., Theod. (ktee'sai ), Jerome, Syr., Targ. express (the LXX leaves v. 7 untranslated), is supported by 7b. Hitzig, after Mercier, De Dieu, and Döderlein, translates the verse thus: "the highest thing is wisdom; get wisdom," which Zöckler approves of; but the reasons which determine him to this rendering are subtleties: if the author had wished himself to be so understood, he ought at least to have written the words hachaak|maah ree'shiyt .

But chaak|maah ree'shiyt is a genitive of relation, as is to be expected from the relativity of the idea ree'shiyt , and his intention is to say that the beginning of wisdom consists in the proposition chaak|maah q|neeh (cf. the similar formula, Eccl 12:13); this proposition is truly the lapis philosophorum, it contains all that is necessary in order to becoming wise. Therefore the Greek sofi'a called itself modestly filosofi'a ; for archee' autee's the Book of Wisdom has, Prov 6:18, hee aleethesta'tee paidei'as epithumi'a. In 7b the proposition is expressed which contains the specificum helping to wisdom. The b| denotes price: give all for wisdom (Matt 13:46,44); no price is too high, no sacrifice too great for it.

Verse 8-9. The meaning of the hap gegr cil|ceel is determined by rowmeem in the parallel clause; caalal signifies to raise, exalt, as a way or dam by heaping up; the Pilpel, here tropical: to value or estimate highly.

Böttcher interprets well: hold it high in price, raise it (as a purchaser) always higher, make offer for it upon offer. The LXX (approved by Bertheau), perichara'kooson autee'n, circumvallate it, i.e., surround it with a wall (col|laah )-a strange and here unsuitable figure. Hold it high, says the author, and so it will reward (Note: Löwenstein has rightly wtrwmamk, vid., my preface to Baer's Genesis, p. vii.) thee with a high place, and (with chiastic transposition of the performance and the consequence) she will honour (Note: We read tkbeed|k| , not kbed|kaa (Hahn) or tkbeed|kaa (Löwenstein); the tone lies on the penult., and the tone-syllable has the point Tsere, as in w|yageed|kaa , Deut 32:7; vid., Michlol 66b.) thee if (ea'n ) thou lovingly embracest her. chibeeq is used of embracing in the pressure of tender love, as in the Canticles Prov 2:6; 8:3; the Piel is related to the Kal as amplexari to amplecti. Wisdom exalts her admirers, honours her lovers, and makes a man's appearance pleasant, causing him to be reverenced when he approaches. Regarding liw|yatcheen, vid., 1:9. migeen , to deliver up (Gen 14:20), to give up (Hos 11:8), is connected in the free poetic manner with two accusatives, instead of with an accus. and dat. LXX has huperaspi'see, but one does not defend himself (as with a shield) by a wreath or crown.

PROVERBS. 4:10-12

Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.

There is no reason for the supposition that the warning which his father gave to the poet now passes over into warnings given by the poet himself (Hitzig); the admonition of the father thus far refers only in general to the endeavour after wisdom, and we are led to expect that the good doctrines which the father communicates to the son as a viaticum will be further expanded, and become more and more specific when they take a new departure. 10 Hearken, my son, and receive my sayings, So shall the years of life be increased to thee. 11 In the way of wisdom have I taught thee, Guided thee in the paths of rectitude. 12 When thou goest, thy step shall not be straitened; And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

Regarding qach (of laaqach ) of appropriating reception and taking up in succum et sanguinem, vid., Prov 1:3; regarding chayiym sh|nowt , years not merely of the duration of life, but of the enjoyment of life, 3:2; regarding ma`|gaal (ma`|gaalaah), path (track), 2:9; regarding the b| of howraah , of the department and subject of instruction, Ps 25:8. The perfects, v. 11, are different from naatatiy , 2a: they refer to rules of life given at an earlier period, which are summarily repeated in this address. The way of wisdom is that which leads to wisdom (Job 28:23); the paths of rectitude, such as trace out the way which is in accordance with the rule of the good and the right. If the youth holds to this direction, he will not go on in darkness or uncertainty with anxious footsteps; and if in youthful fervour he flies along his course, he will not stumble on any unforeseen obstacle and fall. yeetsar is as a metaplastic fut. to tsaarar or tsuwr , to be narrow, to straiten, formed as if from yaatsar . The Targ. after Aruch, (Note: R. Nathan ben Jechiel, A.D. 1106, who is usually styled by the Jewish writers `aaruwk| ba`al , Auctor Aruch, author of a Talmudical Lexicon.]) 'rchk tsnq l', thou shalt not need to bind together (constringere) or to hedge up thy way.

PROVERBS. 4:13-14

Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

The exhortations attracting by means of promises, now become warnings fitted to alarm: 13 Hold fast to instruction, let her not go; Keep her, for she is thy life. 14 Into the path of the wicked enter not, And walk not in the way of the evil 15 Avoid it, enter not into it; Turn from it and pass away. 16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil, And they are deprived of sleep unless they bring others to ruin. 17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, And they drink the wine of violence.

Elsewhere muwcaar means also self-discipline, or moral religious education, Prov 1:3; here discipline, i.e., parental educative counsel. terep is the segolated fut. apoc. Hiph. (indic. tat|peh) from tarp, cf. the imper. Hiph. herep from harp. nits|rehaa is the imper. Kal (not Piel, as Aben Ezra thinks) with Dagesh dirimens; cf. the verbal substantive nits|raah Ps 141:3, with similar Dagesh, after the form yiq|haah, Gen 49:10. muwcaar (elsewhere always masc.) is here used in the fem. as the synonym of the name of wisdom: keep her (instruction), for she is thy life, (Note: Punctuate hiy' yi; the Zinnorith represents the place of the Makkeph, vid., Torath Emeth, p. 9.) i.e., the life of thy life. In v. 14 the godless (vid., on the root-idea of raashaa` under Ps 1:1) and the habitually wicked, i.e., the vicious, stand in parallelism; bow' and 'isheer are related as entering and going on, ingressus and progressus. The verb 'aashar signifies, like yaashar , to be straight, even, fortunate, whence 'esher = Arab. yusâr, happiness, and to step straight out, Prov 9:6, of which meanings 'isheer is partly the intensive, as here, partly the causative, 23:19 (elsewhere causative of the meaning, to be happy, Gen 30:13). The meaning progredi is not mediated by a supplementary ts|`aadaayw ; the derivative 'ashuwr ('ashuwr ), a step, shows that it is derived immediately from the root-idea of a movement in a straight line.

Still less justifiable is the rendering by Schultens, ne vestigia imprimas in via malorum; for the Arab. âththr is denom. of ithr, 'atar , the primitive verb roots of which, athr, 'tr = 'aashar , are lost.

PROVERBS. 4:15

Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

On p|raa`eehuw , avoid it (the way), (opp. 'aachaz , Job 17:9; taamak| , Ps 17:5), see under 1:25. saaTaah , elsewhere (as the Arab. shatt, to be without measure, insolent) used in malam partem, has here its fundamental meaning, to go aside. mee`aalaayw (expressed in French by de dessus, in Ital. by di sopra) denotes: so that thou comest not to stand on it. `aabar means in both cases transire, but the second instance, "to go beyond (farther)" (cf. 2 Sam 15:22, and under Hab 1:11), coincides with "to escape, evadere."

PROVERBS. 4:16

For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

In the reason here given the perf. may stand in the conditional clauses as well as in Virgil's Et si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses; but the fut., as in Eccl 5:11, denotes that they (the raa`iym and the r|shaa`iym ) cannot sleep, and are deprived of their sleep, unless they are continually doing evil and bringing others into misery; the interruption of this course of conduct, which has become to them like a second nature, would be as the interruption of their diet, which makes them ill. For the Kal yik|showluw, which here must have the meaning of the person sinning (cf. v. 19), and would be feeble if used of the confirmed transgressors, the Keri rightly substitutes the Hiphil yak|shiyluw , which occurs also Chron 25:8, there without an object, in the meaning to cause to fall, as the contrast of `aazar (to help).

PROVERBS. 4:17

For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

The second kiy introduces the reason of their bodily welfare being conditioned by evil-doing. If the poet meant: they live on bread which consists in wickedness, i.e., on wickedness as their bread, then in the parallel sentence he should have used the word chaamaac ; the genitives are meant of the means of acquisition: they live on unrighteous gain, on bread and wine which they procure by wickedness and by all manner of violence or injustice. On the etymon of chaamaac (Arab. hamas, durum, asperum, vehementem esse), vid., Schultens; the plur. chamaaciym belongs to a more recent epoch (vid., under 2 Sam 22:49 and Ps 18:49). The change in the tense represents the idea that they having eaten such bread, set forth such wine, and therewith wash it down.

PROVERBS. 4:18-19

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

The two ways that lie for his choice before the youth, are distinguished from one another as light is from darkness: 18 And the path of the just is like the brightness of the morning light, Which shines more and more till the perfect day. 19 The way of the wicked is deep darkness, They know not at what they stumble.

The Hebr. style is wont to conceal in its Vav (w) diverse kinds of logical relations, but the Vav of 18a may suitably stand before 19a, where the discontinuance of this contrast of the two ways is unsuitable. The displacing of a Vav from its right position is not indeed without example (see under Ps 16:3); but since v. 19 joins itself more easily than v. 18 to v. 17 without missing a particle, thus it is more probable that the two verses are to be transposed, than that the w of w|'orach (v. 17) is to be prefixed to derek| (v. 18). Sinning, says v. 16, has become to the godless as a second nature, so that they cannot sleep without it; they must continually be sinning, adds v. 17, for thus and not otherwise do they gain for themselves their daily bread. With reference to this fearful selfperversion to which wickedness has become a necessity and a condition of life, the poet further says that the way of the godless is kaa'apeelaah , (Note: In good MSS and printed copies the k has the Pathach, as Kimchi states the rule in Michlol 45a: ptch ka'plh kl, ptch ka'bnym kl.) as deep darkness, as the entire absence of light: it cannot be otherwise than that they fall, but they do not at all know whereat they fall, for they do not at all know wickedness as such, and have no apprehension of the punishment which from an inward necessity it brings along with it; on the contrary, the path of the just is in constantly increasing light-the light of knowledge, and the light of true happiness which is given (Note: Hitzig inverts the order of vv. 18 and 19, and connects the kiy of 16a immediately with v. 19 (for the way of the wicked...).

He moreover regards vv. 16, 17 as an interpolation, and explains v. 16 as a gloss transforming the text of v. 19. "That the wicked commit wickedness," says Hitzig, "is indeed certain (1 Sam 24:14), and the waning of v. 15 ought not to derive its motive from their energy in sinning." But the warning against the way of the wicked is founded not on their energy in sinning, but on their bondage to sin: their sleep, their food and drink-their life both when they sleep and when they wake-is conditioned by sin and is penetrated by sin. This foundation of the warning furnishes what is needed, and is in nothing open to objection. And that in vv. 16 and 19 yaaree`uw lo' and yaad|`uw lo' , yik|showluw and yikaasheeluw , nig|z|laah and kaa'apeelaah seem to be alike, does not prove that v. 16 originated as a parallel text from v. 19-in the one verse as in the other the thoughts are original.) in and with knowledge.

On bameh vid., under Isa 2:22; it is mik|showl , ska'ndalon , that is meant, stumbling against which (cf. Lev 26:37) they stumble to their fall. nogah , (Note: Böttcher, under 2 Sam 23:4, explains nogah of the brightness striking against, conquering (cf. ngch, ngp) the clouds; but ferire or percutere lies nearer (cf. naaga` , Ezek 17:10, naakaah , Ps 121:6, and the Arab. darb, used of strong sensible impressions), as Silius, iv. 329, says of the light: percussit lumine campos.) used elsewhere than in the Bible, means the morning star (Venus), (Sirach 50:4, Syr.); when used in the Bible it means the early dawn, the light of the rising sun, the morning light,2 Sam 23:4; Isa 62:1, which announces itself in the morning twilight, Dan 6:20. The light of this morning sunshine is waa'owr howleek| , going and shining, i.e., becoming ever brighter.

In the connection of waa'owr howleek| it might be a question whether 'owr is regarded as gerundive (Gen 8:3,5), or as participle (2 Sam 16:5; Jer 41:6), or as a participial adjective (Gen 26:13; Judg 4:24); in the connection of waa'owr haalowk| , on the contrary, it is unquestionably the gerundive: the partic. denoting the progress joins itself either with the partic., Jonah 1:11, or with the participial adjective, 2 Sam 3:1; 2 Chron 17:12, or with another adjective formation, 2 Sam 15:12; Est 9:4 (where w|gaadowl after w|gaadeel of other places appears to be intended as an adjective, not after 2 Sam 5:10 as gerundive). Thus waa'owr , as also waaTowb , 1 Sam 2:26, will be participial after the form bowsh , being ashamed (Ges. §72, 1); cf. bowc, Zech 10:5, qowm , 2 Kings 16:7. "hayowm n|kown quite corresponds to the Greek to' statheero'n tee's heeme'ras hee statheera' meseembri'a (as one also says to' statheero'n tee's nukto's ), and to the Arabic qâ'mt 'l-nhâr and qâ'mt 'l-dhyrt. The figure is probably derived from the balance (cf.

Lucan's Pharsalia, lib. 9: quam cardine summo Stat librata dies): before and after midday the tongue on the balance of the day bends to the left and to the right, but at the point of midday it stands directly in the midst" (Fleischer).

It is the midday time that is meant, when the clearness of the day has reached its fullest intensity-the point between increasing and decreasing, when, as we are wont to say, the sun stands in the zenith (= Arab. samt, the point of support, i.e., the vertex). Besides Mark 4:28, there is no biblical passage which presents like these two a figure of gradual development. The progress of blissful knowledge is compared to that of the clearness of the day till it reaches its midday height, having reached to which it becomes a knowing of all in God, Prov 28:5; 1 John 2:20.

PROVERBS. 4:20-22

My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

The paternal admonition now takes a new departure: 20 My son, attend unto my words, Incline thine ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; Keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life to all who get possession of them, And health to their whole body.

Regarding the Hiph. hiliyz (for heelyz), v. 21, formed after the Chaldee manner like hiliyn, hiniyach , hiciyg, vid., Gesenius, §72, 9;-Ewald, §114, c, gives to it the meaning of "to mock," for he interchanges it with heelyts, instead of the meaning to take away, efficere ut recedat (cf. under Prov 2:15). This supposed causative meaning it has also here: may they = may one (vid., under 2:22) not remove them from thine eyes; the object is (v. 20) the words of the paternal admonition. Hitzig, indeed, observes that "the accusative is not supplied;" but with greater right it is to be remarked that yaliyzuw (fut. Hiph. of luwz ) and yaaluwzuw (fut. Kal of id.) are not one and the same, and the less so as hiliyz occurs, but the masoretical and grammatical authorities (e.g., Kimchi) demand yaliyzuw . The plur. l|mots|'eeyhem is continued, 22b, in the sing., for that which is said refers to each one of the many (3:18,28,35). maatsaa' is fundamentally an active conception, like our "finden," to find; it means to attain, to produce, to procure, etc. mar|pee' means, according as the m is understood of the "that = ut" of the action or of the "what" of its performance, either health or the means of health; here, like rip|'uwt , 3:8, not with the underlying conception of sickness, but of the fluctuations connected with the bodily life of man, which make needful not only a continual strengthening of it, but also its being again and again restored. Nothing preserves soul and body in a healthier state than when we always keep before our eyes and carry in our hearts the good doctrines; they give to us true guidance on the way of life: "Godliness has the promise of this life, and of that which is to come." 1 Tim 4:8.

PROVERBS. 4:23-27

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

After this general preface the exhortation now becomes special: 23 Above all other things that are to be guarded, keep thy heart, For out from it life has its issues. 24 Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, And waywardness of lips put far from thee. 25 Thine eyes should look straight forward, And thine eyelids look straight to the end before thee. 26 Make even the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be correct. 27 Turn not aside to the right and to the left; Remove thy foot from evil.

Although mish|maar in itself and in this connection may mean the object to be watchfully avoided (cavendi) (vid., under Prov 2:20b): thus the usage of the language lying before us applies it, yet only as denoting the place of watching or the object observandi; so that it is not to be thus explained, with Raschi and others: before all from which one has to protect himself (ab omni re cavenda), guard thine heart; but: before all that one has to guard (prae omni re custodienda), guard it as the most precious of possessions committed to thy trust. The heart, which according to its etymon denotes that which is substantial (Kernhafte) in man (cf. Arab. lubb, the kernel of the nut or almond), comes here into view not as the physical, but as the intellectual, and specially the ethical centrum.

Verse 24. The towtsaa'owt are the point of a thing, e.g., of a boundary, from which it goes forth, and the linear course proceeding from thence. If thus the author says that the chayiym towts|'owt go out from the heart, (Note: The correct form here is kiy-mimenuw, with the Makkeph to ky .) he therewith implies that the life has not only its fountain in the heart, but also that the direction which it takes is determined by the heart. Physically considered, the heart is the receptacle for the blood, in which the soul lives and rules; the pitcher at the blood-fountain which draws it and pours it forth; the chief vessel of the physically self-subsisting blood-life from which it goes forth, and into which it disembogues (Syst. der bib. Psychol. p. 232). What is said of the heart in the lower sense of corporeal vitality, is true in the higher sense of the intellectual soul-life.

The Scripture names the heart also as the intellectual soul-centre of man, in its concrete, central unity, its dynamic activity, and its ethical determination on all sides. All the radiations of corporeal and of soul life concentrate there, and again unfold themselves from thence; all that is implied in the Hellenic and Hellenistic words nou's , lo'gos , sunei'deesis , thumo's , lies in the word kardi'a ; and all whereby baasaar (the body) and nepesh (the spirit, anima) are affected comes in leeb into the light of consciousness (Id. p. 251). The heart is the instrument of the thinking, willing, perceiving life of the spirit; it is the seat of the knowledge of self, of the knowledge of God, of the knowledge of our relation to God, and also of the law of God impressed on our moral nature; it is the workshop of our individual spiritual and ethical form of life brought about by self- activity-the life in its higher and in its lower sense goes out from it, and receives from it the impulse of the direction which it takes; and how earnestly, therefore, must we feel ourselves admonished, how sacredly bound to preserve the heart in purity (Ps 73:1), so that from this spring of life may go forth not mere seeming life and a caricature of life, but a true life well-pleasing to God!

How we have to carry into execution this careful guarding of the heart, is shown in v. 24 and the golden rules which follow.

Mouth and lips are meant (v. 24) as instruments of speech, and not of its utterance, but of the speech going forth from them. `iq|shuwt , distorsio, refers to the mouth (Prov 6:12), when what it speaks is disfiguring and deforming, thus falsehood as the contrast of truth and love (2:12); and to the lips laazuwt, when that which they speak turns aside from the true and the right to side-ways and by-ways. Since the Kametz of such abstracta, as well of verbs `''w like raamuwt , Ezek 32:5, as of verbs l''h like gaaluwt , Isa 45:13, chaazuwt , Isa 28:18, is elsewhere treated as unalterable, there lies in this l|zuwt either an inconsistency of punctuation, or it is presupposed that the form l|zuwt was vocalized like sh|buwt = sh|biyt , Num 21:29.

Verse 25. Another rule commends gathering together (concentration) in opposition to dissipation. It is also even externally regarded worthy of consideration, as Ben-Sira, Prov 9:5, expresses it: mee' perible'pou en rhu'mais po'leoos-purposeless, curious staring about operates upon the soul, always decentralizing and easily defiling it. But the rule does not exhaust itself in this meaning with reference to external self-discipline; it counsels also straight-forward, unswerving directness toward a fixed goal (and what else can this be in such a connection than that which wisdom places before man?), without the turning aside of the eye toward that which is profitless and forbidden, and in this inward sense it falls in with the demand for a single, not squinting eye, Matt 6:22, where Bengel explains haplou's by simplex et bonus, intentus in caelum, in Deum, unice. nokach (R. nk) means properly fixing, or holding fast with the look, and neged (as the Arab. najad, to be clear, to be in sight, shows) the rising up which makes the object stand conspicuous before the eyes; both denote here that which lies straight before us, and presents itself to the eye looking straight out. The naming of the `ap|`apiym (from `ip|`eep, to flutter, to move tremblingly), which belongs not to the seeing apparatus of the eye but to its protection, is introduced by the poetical parallelism; for the eyelids, including in this word the twinkling, in their movement follow the direction of the seeing eye. On the form yay|shiruw (fut. Hiph. of yaashar , to be straight), defective according to the Masora, with the Jod audible, cf. Hos 7:12; 1 Chron 12:2, and under Gen 8:17; the softened form heeyshiyr does not occur, we find only hiy|shiyr or howshiyr.

Verse 26. The understanding of this rule is dependent on the right interpretation of paleec , which means neither "weigh off" (Ewald) nor "measure off" (Hitzig, Zöckler). pileec has once, Ps 58:3, the meaning to weigh out, as the denom. of pelec , a level, a steelyard; (Note: The Arabic word teflis, said to be of the same signification (a balance), and which is given in the most recent editions of Gesenius' Lexicon, has been already shown under Job 37:16 to be a word devoid of all evidence.) everywhere else it means to make even, to make level, to open a road: vid., under Isa 26:7; 40:12. The admonition thus refers not to the careful consideration which measures the way leading to the goal which one wishes to reach, but to the preparation of the way by the removal of that which prevents unhindered progress and makes the way insecure. The same meaning appears if pileec, of cognate meaning with tikeen , denoted first to level, and then to make straight with the level (Fleischer).

We must remove all that can become a moral hindrance or a dangerous obstacle, in our life-course, in order that we may make right steps with our feet, as the LXX (Heb 12:13) translate. 26b is only another expression for this thought. dar|kow haakiyn (2 Chron 27:6) means to give a direction to his way; a right way, which keeps in and facilitates the keeping in the straight direction, is accordingly called naakown derek| ; and "let all thy ways be right" (cf. Ps 119:5, LXX kateuthunthei'eesan) will thus mean: see to it that all the ways which thou goest lead straight to the end.

Verse 27. In closest connection with the preceding, 27a cautions against by-ways and indirect courses, and 27b continues it in the briefest moral expression, which is here meeraa` rag|l|kaa haaceer instead of meeraa` cuwr , Prov 3:7, for the figure is derived from the way. The LXX has other four lines after this verse (27), which we have endeavoured to retranslate into the Hebrew (Introd. p. 34). They are by no means genuine; for while in 27a right and left are equivalent to by-ways, here the right and left side are distinguished as that of truth and its contrary; and while there in LXX the ortha's trochia's poiei'n is required of man, here it is promised as the operation of God, which is no contradiction, but in this similarity of expression betrays poverty of style. Hitzig disputes also the genuineness of the Hebrew v. 27. But it continues explanatorily v. 26, and is related to it, yet not as a gloss, and in the general relation of 26 and 27a there comes a word, certainly not unwelcome, such as 27b, which impresses the moral stamp on these thoughts.

That with v. 27 the admonition of his father, which the poet, placing himself back into the period of his youth, reproduces, is not yet concluded, the resumption of the address b|niy , Prov 5:1, makes evident; while on the other hand the address baaniym in 5:7 shows that at that point there is advance made from the recollections of his father's house to conclusions therefrom, for the circle of young men by whom the poet conceives himself to be surrounded. That in 5:7ff. a subject of the warning with which the seventh address closes is retained and further prosecuted, does not in the connection of all these addresses contradict the opinion that with 5:7 a new address begins. But the opinion that the warning against adultery does not agree (Zöckler) with the designation rak| , 4:3, given to him to whom it is addressed, is refuted by 1 Chron 22:5; 2 Chron 13:7.

PROVERBS. 5:1-2

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

Here a fourth rule of life follows the three already given, 4:24, 25, 26-27: 1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, And incline thine ear to my prudence,2 To observe discretion, And that thy lips preserve knowledge. 3 For the lips of the adulteress distil honey, And smoother than oil is her mouth; 4 But her end is bitter like wormwood, Sharper than a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps cleave to Hades. 6 She is far removed from entering the way of life, Her steps wander without her observing it.

Wisdom and understanding increase with the age of those who earnestly seek after them. It is the father of the youth who here requests a willing ear to his wisdom of life, gained in the way of many years' experience and observation. In v. 2 the inf. of the object is continued in the finitum, as in Prov 2:2,8. m|zimowt (vid., on its etymon under 1:4) are plans, projects, designs, for the most part in a bad sense, intrigues and artifices (vid., 24:8), but also used of well-considered resolutions toward what is good, and hence of the purposes of God, Jer 23:20. This noble sense of the word m|zimaah , with its plur., is peculiar to the introductory portion (1-9) of the Book of Proverbs. The plur. means here and at Prov 8:12 (placing itself with chaak|mowt and t|buwnowt , vid., p. 48) the reflection and deliberation which is the presupposition of wellconsidered action, and sh|mor is thus not otherwise than at 19:8, and everywhere so meant, where it has that which is obligatory as its object: the youth is summoned to careful observation and persevering exemplification of the quidquid agas, prudenter agas et respice finem. In 2b the Rebia Mugrash forbids the genitive connection of the two words s|paateykaa w|da`at ; we translate: et ut scientiam labia tua tueantur. Lips which preserve knowledge are such as permit nothing to escape from them (Ps 17:3b) which proceeds not from the knowledge of God, and in Him of that which is good and right, and aims at the working out of this knowledge; vid., Köhler on Mal 2:7. s|paateykaa (from saapaah , Arab. shafat, edge, lip, properly that against which one rubs, and that which rubs itself) is fem., but the usage of the language presents the word in two genders (cf. 3a with Prov 26:23). Regarding the pausal yin|tsoruw for yitsoruw , vid., under 3:1; 2:11. The lips which distil the honey of enticement stand opposite to the lips which distil knowledge; the object of the admonition is to furnish a protection against the honey-lips.

PROVERBS. 5:3

For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: zaaraah denotes the wife who belongs to another, or who does not belong to him to whom she gives herself or who goes after her (vid., Prov 2:16). She appears here as the betrayer of youth. The poet paints the love and amiableness which she feigns with colours from the Canticles, 4:11, cf. 5:16. nopet denotes the honey flowing of itself from the combs (tsuwpym), thus the purest and sweetest; its root-word is not nuwp , which means to shake, vibrate, and only mediately (when the object is a fluid) to scatter, sprinkle, but, as Schultens has observed, as verb naapat = Arab. nafat, to bubble, to spring up, nafath, to blow, to spit out, to pour out. Parchon places the word rightly under naapat (while Kimchi places it under nkp after the form boshet ), and explained it by rycwq qwdm hkwrt my hyts'ym dbsh chlwt (the words hywts' dbsh should have been used): the honey which flows from the cells before they are broken (the so-called virgin honey). The mouth, cheek| = Arab. hink (from chaanak| , Arab. hanak, imbuere, e.g., after the manner of Beduins, the mouth of the newly-born infant with date-honey), comes into view here, as at 8:7, etc., as the instrument of speech: smoother than oil (cf. Ps 55:22), it shows itself when it gives forth amiable, gentle, impressive words (2:16, 6:24); also our "schmeicheln" (= to flatter, caress) is equivalent to to make smooth and fair; in the language of weavers it means to smooth the warp.

PROVERBS. 5:4-5

But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

In verse 4 the reverse of the sweet and smooth external is placed opposite to the attraction of the seducer, by whose influence the inconsiderate permits himself to be carried away: her end, i.e., the last that is experienced of her, the final consequence of intercourse with her (cf. Prov 23:32), is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. The O.T. language regards bitterness and poison as related both in meaning and in reality; the word la`anaah (Aq. apsi'nthion = wormwood) means in Arab. the curse. piyowt chereb is translated by Jerome after the LXX, gladius biceps; but piypiyowt means double-edged, and peeyowt sh|neey chereb (Judg 3:16) means a doubled-edged sword. Here the plur. will thus poetically strengthen the meaning, like xi'fos polu'stomon, that which devours, as if it had three or four edges (Fl.). The end in which the disguised seduction terminates is bitter as the bitterest, and cutting as that which cuts the most: selfcondemnation and a feeling of divine anger, anguish of heart, and destructive judgment.

The feet of the adulteress go downward to death. In Hebr. this descendentes ad mortem is expressed by the genitive of connection; maawet is the genitive, as in bowr yowr|deey , Prov 1:12; elsewhere the author uses 'el yowr|dowt , 7:27; 2:18.

Death, maawet (so named from the stretching of the corpse after the stiffness of death), denotes the condition of departure from this side as a punishment, with which is associated the idea of divine wrath. In sh|'owt (sinking, abyss, from shaa'al , R. sl, chala'n , vid., under Isa 5:14), lie the ideas of the grave as a place of corruption, and of the under-world as the place of incorporeal shadow-life. Her steps hold fast to Hades is equivalent to, they strive after Hades and go straight to it; similar to this is the Arab. expression, hdha âldrb yâkhdh âly âlbld: this way leads straight forward to the town (Fl.).

PROVERBS. 5:6

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

If we try to connect the clause beginning with pen with 5b as its principal sentence: she goes straight to the abyss, so that by no means does she ever tread the way of life (thus e.g., Schultens), or better, with 6b: never more to walk in the way of life, her paths fluctuate hither and thither (as Gr. Venet. and Kamphausen in Bunsen's Bibelwerk, after Bertheau and Ewald, translate); then in the former case more than in the latter the difference of the subject opposes itself, and in the latter, in addition, the teedaa` lo' , only disturbing in this negative clause. Also by the arrangement of the words, 6a appears as an independent thought. But with Jewish expositors (Rashi, Aben-Ezra, Ralbag, Malbim, etc.) to interpret t|paleec , after the Talmud (b. Moëd katan 9a) and Midrash, as an address is impracticable; the warning: do not weigh the path of life, affords no meaning suitable to this connection-for we must, with Cartwright and J. H. Michaelis, regard 6a as the antecedent to 6b: ne forte semitam vitae ad sequendum eligas, te per varios deceptionum meandros abripit ut non noveris, ubi locorum sis; but then the continuation of the address is to be expected in 6b.

No, the subject to tplc is the adulteress, and pen is an intensified lo' . Thus the LXX, Jerome, Syr., Targ., Luther, Geier, Nolde, and among Jewish interpreters Heidenheim, who first broke with the tradition sanctioned by the Talmud and the Midrash, for he interpreted 6a as a negative clause spoken in the tone of a question. But pen is not suitable for a question, but for a call. Accordingly, Böttcher explains: viam vitae ne illa complanare studeat! (pileec in the meaning complanando operam dare). But the adulteress as such, and the striving to come to the way of life, stand in contradiction: an effort to return must be meant, which, because the power of sin over her is too great, fails; but the words do not denote that, they affirm the direct contrary, viz., that it does not happen to the adulteress ever to walk in the way of life. As in the warning the independent pen may be equivalent to cave ne (Job 32:13), so also in the declaration it may be equivalent to absit ut, for peen (from paanaah , after the forms been = Arab. banj. `eets = Arab. 'atsj) means turning away, removal.

Thus: Far from taking the course of the way of life (which has life as its goal and reward)-for pileec, to open, to open a road (Ps 78:50), has here the meaning of the open road itself-much rather do her steps wilfully stagger (Jer 14:10) hither and thither, they go without order and without aim, at one time hither, at another time thither, without her observing it; i.e., without her being concerned at this, that she thereby runs into the danger of falling headlong into the yawning abyss. The unconsciousness which the clause teeda` lo' expresses, has as its object not the falling (Ps 35:8), of which there is here nothing directly said, but just this staggering, vacillation, the danger of which she does not watch against. aa`ow has Mercha under the ` with Zinnorith preceding; it is Milra an oxytone (Michlol 111b); the punctuation varies in the accentuations of the form without evident reason: Olsh. §233, p. 285. The old Jewish interpreters (and recently also Malbim) here, as also at Prov 2:16, by the zaaraah strange woman understand heresy (mynwt), or the philosophy that is hostile to revelation; the ancient Christian interpreters understood by it folly (Origen), or sensuality (Procopius), or heresy (Olympiodorus), or false doctrine (Polychronios). The LXX, which translates, v. 5, rglyh by tee's afrosu'nees ohi po'des, looks toward this allegorical interpretation. But this is unnecessary, and it is proved to be false from 5:15-20, where the zaaraah is contrasted with the married wife.

EIGHTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 5:7-23

Warning against Adultery and Commendation of Marriage With Prov 5:1-6, which like 4:20 commences it once more, the seventh discourse is brought to a conclusion. The address b|niy is three times repeated in similar connections, 4:10,20; 5:1. There is no reason for breaking off the fatherly admonition (introduced with the words, "And he said to me," 4:4), which was addressed to the author in the period of his youth, earlier than here, where the author again resumes the baaniym shim|`uw with which he had begun (4:1) this seventh narrative address. That after the father has ceased speaking he does not express himself in a rounded manner, may be taken as a sign that toward the end he had become more and more unmindful of the rôle of the reporter, if this baaniym w|`ataah following, with which he realizes for his circle of hearers the admonition which had been in part addressed to himself, does not prove the contrary.

PROVERBS. 5:7-23

Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

Verse 7-11. The eighth discourse springs out of the conclusion of the seventh, and connects itself by its reflective mee`aaleyhaa so closely with it that it appears as its continuation; but the new beginning and its contents included in it, referring only to social life, secures its relative independence. The poet derives the warning against intercourse with the adulteress from the preceding discourse, and grounds it on the destructive consequences. 7 And now, ye sons, hearken unto me, And depart not from the words of my mouth. 8 Hold thy path far from her neighbourhood, And come not to the door of her house! 9 That thou mayest not give the freshness of thy youth to another, Nor thy years to the cruel one; 10 That strangers may not sate themselves with thy possessions, And the fruit of thy toils come into the house of a stranger,11 And thou groanest at the end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed.

Neither here nor in the further stages of this discourse is there any reference to the criminal punishment inflicted on the adulterer, which, according to Lev 20:10, consisted in death, according to Ezek 16:40, cf.

John. Prov 8:5, in stoning, and according to a later traditional law, in strangulation (cheneq). Ewald finds in v. 14 a play on this punishment of adultery prescribed by law, and reads from v. 9f. that the adulterer who is caught by the injured husband was reduced to the state of a slave, and was usually deprived of his manhood. But that any one should find pleasure in making the destroyer of his wife his slave is a far-fetched idea, and neither the law nor the history of Israel contains any evidence for this punishment by slavery or the mutilation of the adulterer, for which Ewald refers to Grimm's Deutsche Rechtsaltertümer. The figure which is here sketched by the poet is very different. He who goes into the net of the wanton woman loses his health and his goods. She stands not alone, but has her party with her, who wholly plunder the simpleton who goes into her trap. Nowhere is there any reference to the husband of the adulteress. The poet does not at all think on a married woman. And the word chosen directs our attention rather to a foreigner than to an Israelitish woman, although the author may look upon harlotry as such as heathenish rather than Israelitish, and designate it accordingly. The party of those who make prostitutes of themselves consists of their relations and their older favourites, the companions of their gain, who being in league with her exhaust the lifestrength and the resources of the befooled youth (Fl.). This discourse begins with w|`ataah , for it is connected by this concluding application (cf. 7:24) with the preceding.

Verse 8-9. In verse 8, one must think on such as make a gain of their impurity. mee`al , Schultens remarks, with reference to Ezek 23:18, crebrum in rescisso omni commercio: min denotes the departure, and `al the nearness, from which one must remove himself to a distance. Regarding howd (v. 9), which primarily, like our Pracht (bracht from brechen = to break) pomp, magnificence, appears to mean fulness of sound, and then fulness of splendour, see under Job 39:20; here there is a reference to the freshness or the bloom of youth, as well as the years, against the sacrifice of which the warning is addressed-in a pregnant sense they are the fairest years, the years of youthful fulness of strength.

Along with 'acheeriym the singulare-tantum 'ak|zaariy (vid., Jer 50:42) has a collective sense; regarding the root-meaning, vid., under Isa 13:9. It is the adj. relat. of 'ak|zaar after the form 'ak|zaab , which is formed not from zaar 'ak| , but from an unknown verb kaazar. The ancients referred it to death and the devil; but the 'kzry belongs to the covetous society, which impels ever anew to sin, which is their profit, him who has once fallen into it, and thus brings bodily ruin upon him; they are the people who stand far aloof from this their sacrifice, and among them are barbarous, rude, inexorably cruel monsters (Unmenschen) (Graecus Venetus, too' apanthroo'poo), who rest not till their victim is laid prostrate on the ground and ruined both bodily and financially.

Verse 10. This other side of the ruin v. 10 presents as an image of terror.

For howr refers to the person in his stately appearance, but koach to his possessions in money and goods; for this word, as well as in the strikingly similar passage Hos 7:9, is used as the synonym of chayil (Gen 34:29, etc.), in the sense of ability, estate. This meaning is probably mediated by means of a metonymy, as Gen 4:12; Job 31:39, where the idea of the capability of producing is passed over into that of the produce conformable to it; so here the idea of work-power passes over into that of the gain resulting therefrom. wa`atsaabeykaa (and thy toils) is not, like kochekaa , the accusative governed by yis|b|`uw ; the carrying over of this verb disturbs the parallelism, and the statement in the passage besides does not accord therewith, which, interpreted as a virtual predicate, presents 10b as an independent prohibitive clause: neve sint labores tui in domo peregrini, not peregrina; at least naak|riy according to the usage of the language is always personal, so that naak|riy beeyt (cf. Lam 5:2), like nkry mlbwsh, Zeph 1:8, is to be explained after naak|riy `iyr , Judg 19:12. `etseb (from `aatsab , Arab. 'atsab, to bind fast, to tie together, then to make effort, poiei'n , laborare) is difficult work (Prov 10:22), and that which is obtained by it; Fleischer compares the Ital. i miei sudori, and the French mes sueurs.

Verse 11. The fut. yis|b|`uw and the yih|yuw needed to complete 10b are continued in v. 11 in the consec. perf. naaham , elsewhere of the hollow roaring of the sea, Isa 5:30, the growling of the lion, 28:15, here, as also Ezek 24:23, of the hollow groaning of men; a word which echoes the natural sound, like huwm , haamaah . The LXX, with the versions derived from it, has kai' metameleethee'see , i.e., w|nicham|taa (the Niph. nicham , to experience the sorrow of repentance, also an echo-word which imitates the sound of deep breathing)-a happy quid pro quo, as if one interchanged the Arab. naham, fremere, anhelare, and nadam, paenitere. That wherein the end consists to which the deluded youth is brought, and the sorrowful sound of despair extorted from him, is stated in 11b: his flesh is consumed away, for sensuality and vexation have worked together to undermine his health. The author here connects together two synonyms to strengthen the conception, as if one said: All thy tears and thy weeping help thee nothing (Fl.); he loves this heaping together of synonyms, as we have shown at p. 24.

When the blood-relation of any one is called b|saarow sh|'eer , Lev 18:6; 25:49, these two synonyms show themselves in subordination, as here in close relation. sh|'eer appears to be closely connected with sh|riyriym, muscles and sinews, and with shor , the umbilical cord, and thus to denote the flesh with respect to its muscular nature adhering to the bones (Mic 3:2), as baasaar denotes it with respect to its tangible outside clothed with skin (vid., under Isaiah, p. 418).

Verse 12-14. The poet now tells those whom he warns to hear how the voluptuary, looking back on his life-course, passes sentence against himself. 12 And thou sayest, "Why have I then hated correction, And my heart despised instruction! 13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, Nor lent mine ear to my instructors? 14 I had almost fallen into every vice In the midst of the assembly and the congregation!" The question 12a (here more an exclamation than a question) is the combination of two: How has it become possible for me? How could it ever come to it that.... Thus also one ways in Arab.: Kyf f'alat hadhâ (Fl.).

The regimen of 'eeyk| in 12b is becoming faint, and in 13b has disappeared. The Kal naa'ats (as Prov 1:30; 15:5) signifies to despise; the Piel intensively, to contemn and reject (R. nts, pungere).

Verse 13. b| shaama` signifies to cleave to anything in hearing, as b| raa'aah is to do so in seeing; l| shaama` yet more closely corresponds with the classic epakou'ein, obedire, e.g., Ps 81:9; b|qowl shaama` is the usual phrase for "hearken!"

Verse 14. kim|`at with the perf. following is equivalent to: it wanted but a little that this or that should happen, e.g., Gen 26:10. It is now for the most part thus explained: it wanted but a little, and led astray by that wicked companionship I would have been drawn away into crime, for which I would then have been subjected to open punishment (Fl.). Ewald understands raa` directly of punishment in its extreme form, stoning; and Hitzig explains kaal-raa` by "the totality of evil," in so far as the disgraceful death of the criminal comprehends in it all other evils that are less. But b|kaal-raa` means, either, into every evil, misfortune, or into every wickedness; and since ra` , in contradistinction to lb (Hitzig compares Ezek 36:5), is a conception of a species, then the meaning is equivalent to in omni genere mali. The reference to the deathpunishment of the adulteress is excluded thereby, though it cannot be denied that it might be thought of at the same time, if he who too late comes to consider his ways were distinctly designated in the preceding statements as an adulterer.

But it is on the whole a question whether bkl-r` is meant of the evil which follows sin as its consequence. The usage of the language permits this, cf. Sam 16:8; Ex 5:19; 1 Chron 7:23; Ps 10:6, but no less the reference to that which is morally bad, cf. Ex 32:22 (where Keil rightly compares with John 5:19); and haayiytiy (for which in the first case one expected naapal|tiy , I fell into, vid., Prov 13:17; 17:20; 28:14) is even more favourable to the latter reference. Also w|`eedaah qaahaal b|towk| (cf. on the heaping together of synonyms under 11b), this paraphrase of the palam ac publice, with its b|towk| (cf. Ps 111:1; Chron 20:14), looks rather to a heightening of the moral self-accusation. He found himself in all wickedness, living and moving therein in the midst of the congregation, and thereby giving offence to it, for he took part in the external worship and in the practices of the congregation, branding himself thereby as a hypocrite.

That by the one name the congregation is meant in its civil aspect, and by the other in its ecclesiastical aspect, is not to be supposed: in the congregation of the people of the revealed law, the political and the religious sides are not so distinguished. It is called without distinction qaahaal and `eedaah (from yaa`ad ). Rather we would say that qhl is the whole ecclesia, and `dh the whole of its representatives; but also the great general council bears sometimes the one name (Ex 12:3, cf. 21) and sometimes the other (Deut 31:30, cf. 28)-the placing of them together serves thus only to strengthen the conception.

Verse 15-17. The commendation of true conjugal love in the form of an invitation to a participation in it, is now presented along with the warning against non-conjugal intercourse, heightened by a reference to its evil consequences. 15 Drink water from thine own cistern, And flowing streams from thine own fountain. 16 Shall thy streams flow abroad, The water-brooks in the streets! 17 Let them belong to thyself alone, And not to strangers with thee.

One drinks water to quench his thirst; here drinking is a figure of the satisfaction of conjugal love, of which Paul says, 1 Cor 7:9, krei'sso'n esti gamee'sai ee' purou'sthai , and this comes into view here, in conformity with the prevailing character of the O.T., only as a created inborn natural impulse, without reference to the poisoning of it by sin, which also within the sphere of married life makes government, moderation, and restraint a duty. Warning against this degeneracy of the natural impulse to the pa'thos epithumi'as authorized within divinely prescribed limits, the apostle calls the wife of any one to' heautou' skeu'os (cf. 1 Peter 3:7). So here the wife, who is his by covenant (Prov 2:17), is called "cistern" (bowr ) (Note: The LXX translate apo' soo'n aggei'oon, i.e., mik|waareykaa (vid., Lagarde).) and "fountain" (b|'eer ) of the husband to whom she is married.

The figure corresponds to the sexual nature of the wife, the expression for which is n|qeebaah ; but Isa 51:1 holds to the natural side of the figure, for according to it the wife is a pit, and the children are brought out of it into the light of day. Aben-Ezra on Lev 11:36 rightly distinguishes between bwr and b'r: the former catches the rain, the latter wells out from within. In the former, as Rashi in Erubin ii. 4 remarks, there are mkwncym mym, in the latter chyym mym . The postbiblical Hebrew observes this distinction less closely (vid., Kimchi's Book of Roots), but the biblical throughout; so far the Kerî, Jer 6:7, rightly changes bwr into the form bayir , corresponding to the Arab. byar. Therefore bwr is the cistern, for the making of which chaatsab , Jer 2:13, and b'r the well, for the formation of which chpr , Gen 21:30, and krh, 26:25, are the respective words usually employed (vid., Malbim, Sifra 117b).

The poet shows that he also is aware of this distinction, for he calls the water which one drinks from the bwr by the name mym , but on the other hand that out of the b'r by the name nowz|liym , running waters, fluenta; by this we are at once reminded of Song 4:15, cf. 12. The bwr offers only stagnant water (according to the Sohar, the bwr has no water of its own, but only that which is received into it), although coming down into it from above; but the b'r has living water, which wells up out of its interior (mitowk| , 15b, intentionally for the mere mn ), and is fresh as the streams from Lebanon (naazal , properly labi, to run down, cf. 'aazal , placide ire, and generally ire; Arab. zâl, loco cedere, desinere; Arab. zll, IV, to cause to glide back, deglutire, of the gourmand). What a valuable possession a well of water is for nomads the history of the patriarchs makes evident, and a cistern is one of the most valuable possessions belonging to every wellfurnished house. The figure of the cistern is here surpassed by that of the fountain, but both refer to the seeking and finding satisfaction (cf. the opposite passage, Prov 23:27) with the wife, and that, as the expressive possessive suffixes denote, with his legitimate wife.

Verse 16. Here we meet with two other synonyms standing in a similar relation of progression. As `ayin denotes the fountain as to its point of outflow, so ma`|yaan (n. loci) means water flowing above on the surface, which in its course increases and divides itself into several courses; such a brook is called, with reference to the water dividing itself from the point of outflow, or to the way in which it divides, peleg (from paalag , Job 38:25), Arab. falaj (as also the Ethiop.) or falj, which is explained by nahar tsaghayr (Fl.). (Note: The latter idea (vid., under Ps 1:3) lies nearer, after Job 38:25: the brook as dividing channels for itself, or as divided into such; falj (Falaj) signifies, according to the representation Isa 58:8, also like fajr, the morning-light (as breaking forth from a cleft).)

We cannot in this double figure think of any reference to the generative power in the sperma; similar figures are the waters of Judah, Isa 48:1, and the waters of Israel flowing forth as if from a bucket, Num 24:7, where zr`w is the parallel word to mym , cf. also the proper name mow'aab (from mow = mowy from maawaah, diffluere), aqua h.e. semen patris, and shaagal , Deut 28:30, = Arab. sajal (whence sajl = d|liy , situla), which is set aside by the Kerî. Many interpreters have by chuwtsaah and baar|chobowt been here led into the error of pressing into the text the exhortation not to waste the creative power in sinful lust. The LXX translates yaaputsuw by huperekchei'sthoo; but Origen, and also Clemens Alexandrinus, used the phrase mee' huperekchei'sthoo, which is found in the Complut., Ald., and several codd., and is regarded by Lagarde, as also Cappellus, as original: the three Göttingen theologians (Ewald, Bertheau, and Elster) accordingly make the emendation 'al-yaaputsuw.

But that mee' of the LXX was not added till a later period; the original expression, which the Syro-Hexapl. authorizes, was huperekchei'sthoo without mee' , as also in the version of Aquila, diaskorpize'sthoosan without mee' (vid., Field). The Hebrew text also does not need 'l . Clericus, and recently Hitzig, Zöckler, Kamphausen, avoid this remedy, for they understand this verse interrogatively-an expedient which is for the most part and also here unavailing; for why should not the author have written yptsw 'im?

Schultens rightly remarks: nec negationi nec interrogationi ullus hic locus, for (with Fleischer and von Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, ii. 2, 402) he regards v. 16 as a conclusion: tunc exundabunt; so that he strengthens the summons of v. 15 by the promise of numerous descendants from unviolated marriage. But to be so understood, the author ought to have written w|yptsw.

So, according to the text, yptsw as jussive continues the imper. sh|teeh (15a), and the full meaning according to the connection is this: that within the marriage relation the generative power shall act freely and unrestrained. chuwts and r|chobowt denote (Prov 1:20) the space free from houses, and the ways and places which lead towards and stretch between them; chuwts (from chuwts , Arab. khass, to split, seorsim ponere) is a very relative conception, according as one thinks of that which is without as the contrast of the house, the city, or the country. Here chwts is the contrast of the person, and thus that which is anywhere without it, whereto the exercise of its manly power shall extend. The two figurative expressions are the description of the libero flumine, and the contrast, that restriction of self which the marriage relation, according to 1 Cor 7:3-5, condemns.

Verse 17. That such matters as there are thought of, is manifest from this verse. As zr` comprehends with the cause (sperma) the effect (posterity), so, in v. 16, with the effusio roboris virilis is connected the idea of the beginnings of life. For the subjects of v. 17 are the effusiones seminis named in v. 16. These in their effects (v. 17) may belong to thee alone, viz., to thee alone (l|bad|kaa , properly in thy separateness) within thy married relation, not, as thou hast fellowship with other women, to different family circles, Aben-Ezra rightly regards as the subject, for he glosses thus: hkshrym hbnym shhm hplgym, and Immanuel well explains yih|yuw-l|kaa by lk ytychcw. The child born out of wedlock belongs not to the father alone, he knows not to whom it belongs; its father must for the sake of his honour deny it before the world. Thus, as Grotius remarks: ibi sere ubi prolem metas. In w'yn and yhyw is continued.

It is not thus used adverbially for l' , as in the old classic Arabic lyas for l' (Fl.), but it carries in it the force of a verb, so that yhyw, according to rule, in the sense of hyw wl' = yhyw wl', continues it.

Verse 18-20. With v. 18 is introduced anew the praise of conjugal love.

These three verses, 18-21, have the same course of thought as 15-17. 18 Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of thy youth. 19 The lovely hind and the graceful gazelle- May her bosom always charm thee; In her love mayest thou delight thyself evermore. 20 But why wilt thou be fascinated with a stranger, And embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

Like bwr and b'r, maaqowr is also a figure of the wife; the root-word is quwr , from qr, kr, the meanings of which, to dig and make round, come together in the primary conception of the round digging out or boring out, not quwr = qaarar, the Hiph. of which means (Jer 6:7) to well out cold (water). It is the fountain of the birth that is meant (cf. maaqowr of the female `er|waah , e.g., Lev 20:18), not the procreation (LXX, hee see' fle'ps, viz., fle'ps goni'mee); the blessing wished for by him is the blessing of children, which baaruwk| so much the more distinctly denotes if baarak| , Arab. barak, means to spread out, and beereek| thus to cause a spreading out. The min , 18b, explains itself from the idea of drawing (water), given with the figure of a fountain; the word b|'sht found in certain codices is, on the contrary, prosaic (Fl.). Whilst min smch is found elsewhere (Eccl 2:20; Chron 20:27) as meaning almost the same as b| smch; the former means rejoicing from some place, the latter in something. In the genitive connection, "wife of thy youth" (cf. Prov 2:17), both of these significations lie: thy youthful wife, and she who was chosen by thee in thy youth, according as we refer the suffix to the whole idea or only to the second member of the chain of words.

Verse 19. The subject, 19a, set forth as a theme courts love for her who is to be loved, for she presents herself as lovely. 'ayelet is the female of the stag, which may derive its name 'ayaal from the weaponpower of its horns, and ya`alaah (from yaa`al , Arab. wa'al, to climb), that of the wild-goat (yaa`eel ); and thus properly, not the gazelle, which is called ts|biy on account of its elegance, but the chamois. These animals are commonly used in Semitic poetry as figures of female beauty on account of the delicate beauty of their limbs and their sprightly black eyes. 'ahaabiym signifies always sensual love, and is interchanged in this erotic meaning (Prov 7:18) with dowdiym . In 19b the predicate follows the subject. The Graec. Venet. translates as if the word were dwdyh, and the Syr. as if it were drkyh, but Aquila rightly translates ti'tthoi autee's. As ti'tthos is derived (vid., Curtius, Griech.

Etymologie, Nr. 307) from dhâ, to suck (causative, with anu, to put to sucking), so dad , shad , tad, Arab. thady (commonly in dual thadjein), from shaadaah, Arab. thdy, rigare, after which also the verb y|rauwuwkaa is chosen: she may plentifully give thee to drink; figuratively equivalent to, refresh or (what the Aram. rauwiy precisely means) fascinate (Note: Many editions have here b|kaal- ; but this Dagesh, which is contrary to rule, is to be effaced.) thee, satisfy thee with love. dadiym also is an erotic word, which besides in this place is found only in Ezekiel (Ezek 23:3,8,21). The LXX obliterates the strong sensual colouring of this line. In 19c it changes tish|geh into tsgh, pollosto's e'see, perhaps also because the former appeared to be too sensual. Moses ha-Darshan (in Rashi) proposes to explain it after the Arab. sjy, to cover, to cast over, to come over anything (III = `cq, to employ oneself with something): engage thyself with her love, i.e., be always devoted to her in love. And Immanuel himself, the author of a Hebrew Divan expatiating with unparalleled freedom in erotic representations, remarks, while he rightly understands tshgh of the fascination of love: shggh b'shtw 'pylw chshqw htmdt qwr', he calls the husband's continual caressing of the wife an error. But this moral sideglance lies here at a distance from the poet. He speaks here of a morally permissible love-ecstasy, or rather, since tmyd excludes that which is extraordinary, of an intensity of love connected with the feeling of superabundant happiness. shaagaah properly signifies to err from the way, therefore figuratively, with b of a matter, like delirare ea, to be wholly captivated by her, so that one is no longer in his own power, can no longer restrain himself-the usual word for the intoxication of love and of wine, Prov 20:1 (Fl.).

Verse 20. The answer to the Why? in this verse is: no reasonable causeonly beastly sensuality only flagitious blindness can mislead thee. The b of b|zaaraah is, as 19b and Isa 28:7, that of the object through which one is betrayed into intoxication. cheeq (thus, according to the Masora, four times in the O.T. for cheeyq ) properly means an incision or deepening, as Arab. hujr (from hjr, cohibere), the front of the body, the part between the arms or the female breasts, thus the bosom, Isa 40:11 (with the swelling part of the clothing, sinus vestis, which the Arabs call jayb), and the lap; chibeeq (as 4:8), to embrace, corresponds here more closely with the former of these meanings; also elsewhere the wife of any one is called chyqw 'st or bchyqw hshkbt, as she who rests on his breast. The ancients, also J. H. Michaelis, interpret vv. 15-20 allegorically, but without thereby removing sensual traces from the elevated N.T. consciousness of pollution, striving against all that is fleshly; for the castum cum Sapientia conjugium would still be always represented under the figure of husband and wife dwelling together. Besides, though zrh might be, as the contrast of chkmh, the personified lust of the world and of the flesh, yet 19a is certainly not the chkmh, but a woman composed of flesh and blood. Thus the poet means the married life, not in a figurative sense, but in its reality-he designedly describes it thus attractively and purely, because it bears in itself the preservative against promiscuous fleshly lust.

Verse 21-23. That the intercourse of the sexes out of the married relationship is the commencement of the ruin of a fool is now proved. 21 For the ways of every one are before the eyes of Jahve, And all his paths He marketh out. 22 His own sins lay hold of him, the evil-doer, And in the bands of his sins is he held fast. 23 He dies for the want of correction, And in the fulness of his folly he staggers to ruin.

It is unnecessary to interpret nokach as an adverbial accusative: straight before Jahve's eyes; it may be the nominative of the predicate; the ways of man (for 'iysh is here an individual, whether man or woman) are an object (properly, fixing) of the eyes of Jahve. With this the thought would suitably connect itself: et onmes orbitas ejus ad amussim examinat; but pileec, as the denom. of pelec , Ps 58:3, is not connected with all the places where the verb is united with the obj. of the way, and Ps 78:50 shows that it has there the meaning to break though, to open a way (from pl, to split, cf. Talmudic m|pulaash, opened, accessible, from plsh, Syriac pelaa_, perfodere, fodiendo viam, aditum sibi aperire).

The opening of the way is here not, as at Isa 26:7, conceived of as the setting aside of the hindrances in the way of him who walks, but generally as making walking in the way possible: man can take no step in any direction without God; and that not only does not exempt him from moral responsibility, but the consciousness of this is rather for the first time rightly quickened by the consciousness of being encompassed on every side by the knowledge and the power of God. The dissuasion of v. 20 is thus in v. 21 grounded in the fact, that man at every stage and step of his journey is observed and encompassed by God: it is impossible for him to escape from the knowledge of God or from dependence on Him. Thus opening all the paths of man, He has also appointed to the way of sin the punishment with which it corrects itself: "his sins lay hold of him, the evildoer."

The suffix aa-yw does not refer to 'iysh of v. 21, where every one without exception and without distinction is meant, but it relates to the obj. following, the evil-doer, namely, as the explanatory permutative annexed to the "him" according to the scheme, Ex 2:6; the permutative is distinguished from the apposition by this, that the latter is a forethought explanation which heightens the understanding of the subject, while the former is an explanation afterwards brought in which guards against a misunderstanding. The same construction, Prov 14:13b, belonging to the syntaxis ornata in the old Hebrew, has become common in the Aramaic and in the modern Hebrew. Instead of yil|k|duwhuw (v. 22), the poet uses poetically yil|k|dunow ; the interposed n may belong to the emphatic ground-form yil|kaaduwn, but is epenthetic if one compares forms such as qaab|now (R. qob ), Num 23:13 (cf. p. 52).

The chaTaa'tow governed by chab|leey , laquei (cheb|leey , tormina), is either gen. exeg.: bands which consist in his sin, or gen. subj.: bands which his sin unites, or better, gen. possess.: bands which his sin brings with it. By these bands he will be held fast, and so will die: he (huw' referring to the person described) will die in insubordination (Symm. di apaideusi'an), or better, since 'eeyn and rob are placed in contrast: in want of correction. With the yish|geh (v. 23b), repeated purposely from v. 20, there is connected the idea of the overthrow which is certain to overtake the infatuated man. In v. 20 the sense of moral error began already to connect itself with this verb. 'iuwelet is the right name of unrestrained lust of the flesh. 'wlt is connected with 'uwl , the belly; 'wl, Arab. âl, to draw together, to condense, to thicken (Isaiah, p. 424). Dummheit (stupidity) and the Old-Norse dumba, darkness, are in their roots related to each other. Also in the Semitic the words for blackness and darkness are derived from roots meaning condensation. 'wyl is the mind made thick, darkened, and become like crude matter.

NINTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 6:1-5

Warning against Inconsiderate Suretyship The author does not return to the subject of chastity till the twelfth discourse, Prov 6:20ff. Between the eight and the twelfth three other groups of moral proverbs are introduced, which are neither connected with one another nor with the eight discourses which precede them. Must we therefore, with Hitzig and Kamphausen, hold Proverbs 6:1-6-12-19, to be an interpolation here introduced from some other place? We find here the fondness for synonyms and words similar in sound peculiar to the author of the introduction, 6:2-3,5, and meet with the same interchange of words, 6:4, cf. 4:25, and figurative expressions, 6:18, cf. 3:29 (chrsh ), word-formations, 6:10 (chibuq ), cf. 3:8 (shiquwy ), ideas, 6:12, cf. 4:28 (ph `qshwt ), 6:14, cf. 2:12-13 (thpkwt), and constructions, 6:12 (ph `qshwt hwlk ), cf. 2:7 (tm hlky); like delineations of character, 6:18b, cf. 1:16, and threatenings, 6:15, cf. 1:26f., 3:25-as many marks of identity of the authorship as could be expected. And what had moved the interpolators to introduce the three groups of proverbs, Proverbs 6:1-6-12-19, just here? In vain does Hitzig seek to extract from ch. 5 certain words and ideas common to it with ch. which shall make it clear that the groups of proverbs in question are here an interpolation; the points of contrast are not prominent. If now the poet has already in 3:1-18, but still more in 3:27ff., connected together all manner of rules of life without any close or visible connection, it is not strange if at 6:1, where besides the bny denotes the new section, he breaks off to a new subject out of the fulness of his matter; and the connection wanting between 6:1 and 5:23, as well as between 3:27 and 3:26, does not therefore warrant critical suspicion.

PROVERBS. 6:1-5

My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Verse 1-2. The author warns against suretyship; or rather, he advises that if one has made himself surety, he should as quickly as possible withdraw from the snare. 1 My son, if thou hast become surety for thy neighbour, Hast given thy hand for another: 2 Thou art entangled in the words of thy mouth, Ensnared in the words of thy mouth. 3 Do this then, my son, and free thyself- For thou hast come under the power of thy neighbour- Go, instantly entreat and importune thy neighbour. 4 Give no sleep to thine eyes, And no slumber to thine eyelids; 5 Tear thyself free like a gazelle from his hand, And as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

The chief question here is, whether l| after `aarab introduces him for whom or with whom one becomes surety. Elsewhere `rb (R. rb , whence also 'aarab , nectere, to twist close and compact) with the accusative of the person means to become surety for any one, to represent him as a surety, Prov 11:15; 20:16 (27:13), Gen 43:9; 44:33 (as with the accusative of the matter, to pledge anything, to deposit it as a pledge, Jer 30:21; Neh 5:3, = siym , Arab. wad'a, Job 17:3); and to become surety with any one is expressed, 17:18, by lip|neey `rb . The phrase l| `rb is not elsewhere met with, and is thus questionable. If we look to v. 3, the reea` (ree`eh ) mentioned there cannot possibly be the creditor with whom one has become surety, for so impetuous and urgent an application to him would be both purposeless and unbecoming.

But if he is meant for whom one has become surety, then certainly l|ree`ekaa is also to be understood of the same person, and l| is thus dat. commodi; similar to this is the Targumic `al `ar|buwtaa', suretyship for any one, Prov 17:18; 22:26. But is the zaar , 1b, distinguished from r`k, the stranger with whom one has become surety? The parallels 11:15; 20:16, where zr denotes the person whom one represents, show that in both lines one and the same person is meant; zr is in the Proverbs equivalent to 'acheer , each different from the person in the discourse, 5:17; 27:2-thus, like r`k, denotes not the friend, but generally him to whom one stands in any kind of relation, even a very external one, in a word, the fellow-creatures or neighbours, 24:28 (cf. the Arab. sahbk and karynk, which are used as vaguely and superficially). It is further a question, whether we have to explain 1b: if thou hast given thine hand to another, or for another.

Here also we are without evidence from the usage of the language; for the phrase kap taaqa` , or merely taaqa` , appears to be used of striking the hand in suretyship where it elsewhere occurs without any further addition, Prov 17:18; 22:26; 11:15; however, Job 17:3, l|yad nit|qa` appears the same: to strike into the hand of any one, i.e., to give to him the hand-stroke. From this passage Hitzig concludes that the surety gave the hand-stroke, without doubt in the presence of witnesses, first of all of the creditor, to the debtor, as a sign that he stood for him. But this idea is unnatural, and the "without doubt" melts into air. He on whose hand the stroke falls is always the person to whom one gives suretyship, and confirms it by the hand-stroke. Job also, l.c., means to say: who else but Thou, O Lord, could give to me a pledge, viz., of my innocence? If now the zr, v. 1b, is, as we have shown, not the creditor, (Note: A translation by R. Joseph Joel of Fulda, 1787, whose autograph MS Baer possesses, renders the passage not badly thus:-"My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, and hast given the hand to another, then thou art bound by thy word, held by thy promise. Yet do what I say to thee, my son: Be at pains as soon as thou canst to get free, otherwise thou art in the power of thy friend; shun no trouble, be urgent with thy friend.") but the debtor, then is the l the dat. commodi, as 1a, and the two lines perfectly correspond. taaqa` properly means to drive, to strike with a resounding noise, cogn. with the Arab. wak'a, which may be regarded as its intrans. (Fl.); then particularly to strike the hand or with the hand. He to whom this hand-pledge is given for another remains here undesignated.

A new question arises, whether in v. 6, where nowqash (illaqueari) and nil|kad (comprehendi) follow each other as Isa 8:15, cf. Jer 50:24, the hypothetical antecedent is continued or not. We agree with Schultens, Ziegler, and Fleischer against the continuance of the 'im . The repetition of the piykaa b|'im|reey (cf. Prov 2:14) serves rightly to strengthen the representation of the thought: thou, thou thyself and no other, hast then ensnared thyself in the net; but this strengthening of the expression would greatly lose in force by placing v. 2 in the antecedent, while if v. 2 is regarded as the conclusion, and thus as the principal proposition, it appears in its full strength.

Verse 3-4. The new commencement needs no particle denoting a conclusion; the 'eepow' , making the summons emphatic (cf. 2 Kings 10:10, frequently in interrogative clauses), connects it closely enough. zo't , neut., refers to what follows. The w before hinaatseel is explanatory, as we say in familiar language: Be so good as tell me, or do me the favour to come with me; while no Frenchman would say, Faites-moi le (ce) plaisir et venez avec moi (Fl.). (Note: For the right succession of the accents here (three serviles before the Pazer), vid., Torath Emeth, p. 30; Accentuationssystem, xii. §4. According to Gen-Naphtali, Mercha is to be given to the zo't .)

The clause baa'taa kiy (Note: The Zinnorith before the Mahpach in these words represents at the same time the Makkeph and rejects the Zinnorith; vid., Torath Emeth, p. 16, and my Psalmencomm. Bd. ii. (1860), p. 460, note 2.) is not to be translated: in case thou art fallen into the hand of thy neighbour; for this is represented (vv. 1, 2) as having already in fact happened. On two sides the surety is no longer sui juris: the creditor has him in his hand; for if the debtor does not pay, he holds the surety, and in this way many an honourable man has lost house and goods, Sirach 29:18, cf. 8:13;-and the debtor has him, the surety, in his hand; for the performance which is due, for which the suretyship avails, depends on his conscientiousness. The latter is here meant: thou hast made thy freedom and thy possessions dependent on the will of thy neighbour for whom thou art the surety. The clause introduced with kiy gives the reason for the call to set himself free (hinaatseel from ntsl, R. tsl, sl, to draw out or off); it is a parenthetical sentence.

The meaning of hit|rapeec is certain. The verb raapac (raapas , r|pac ) signifies to stamp on, calcare, conclucare; the Kamûs (Note: el-Feyroozábádee's Kâmus, a native Arabic Lexicon; vid., Lane's Arab. Lex. Bk. i. pt. 1, p. xvii.]) explains rafas by rakad balarjal. The Hithpa. might, it is true, mean to conduct oneself in a trampling manner, to tread roughly, as hit|nabee', and the medial Niph. nibaa' , to conduct oneself speaking (in an impassioned manner); but Ps 68:31 and the analogy of hit|bowceec favour the meaning to throw oneself in a stamping manner, i.e., violently, to the ground, to trample upon oneself-i.e., let oneself be trampled upon, to place oneself in the attitude of most earnest humble prayer. Thus the Graec.

Venet. patee'theeti, Rashi ("humble thyself like to the threshold which is trampled and trode upon"), Aben-Ezra, Immanuel ("humble thyself under the soles of his feet"); so Cocceius, J. H. Michaelis, and others: conculcandum te praebe. uwr|hab is more controverted.

The Talmudic-Midrash explanation (b. Joma, 87a; Bathra, 173b, and elsewhere): take with thee in great numbers thy friends (r|hab = har|beeh ), is discredited by this, that it has along with it the explanation of htrpc by (yd ) pac chateer , solve palmam (manus), i.e., pay what thou canst. Also with the meaning to rule (Parchon, Immanuel), which rhb besides has not, nothing is to be done.

The right meaning of b| raahab is to rush upon one boisterously, Isa 3:5. raahab means in general to be violently excited (Arab. rahiba, to be afraid), and thus to meet one, here with the accusative: assail impetuously thy neighbour (viz., that he fulfil his engagement).

Accordingly, with a choice of words more or less suitable, the LXX translates by paro'xune , Symm., Theodotion by paro'rmeeson, the Graec. Venet. by eni'schuson , the Syr. (which the Targumist copies) by grg (solicita), and Kimchi glosses by: lay an arrest upon him with pacifying words. The Talmud explains ree`eykaa as plur.; (Note: There is here no distinction between the Kethîb and the Kerî.

The Masora remarks, "This is the only passage in the Book of Proverbs where the word is written with Yod (y);" it thus recognises only the undisputed r`eyk|.) but the plur., which was permissible in Prov 3:28, is here wholly inadmissible: it is thus the plena scriptio for ree`ekaa with the retaining of the third radical of the ground-form of the root-word (raa`ay = raa`aah ), or with y as mater lectionis, to distinguish the pausal-form from that which is without the pause; cf. 24:34. LXX, Syr., Jerome, etc., rightly translate it in the sing. The immediateness lying in leek| (cf. hu'page , Matt 5:24) is now expressed as a duty, v. 4f. One must not sleep and slumber (an expression quite like Ps 132:4), not give himself quietness and rest, till the other has released him from his bail by the performance of that for which he is surety. One must set himself free as a gazelle or as a bird, being caught, seeks to disentangle itself by calling forth all its strength and art.

Verse 5. The naked miyaad is not to be translated "immediately;" for in this sense the word is rabbinical, not biblical. The versions (with exception of Jerome and the Graec. Venet.) translate as if the word were mipach out of the snare. Bertheau prefers this reading, and Böttcher holds tsayaad a hunger to have fallen out after myd . It is not a parallelism with reservation; for a bird-catcher is not at the same time a gazelle-hunter. The author, if he has so written, has conceived of myd , as at 1 Kings 20:42, as absolute, and connected it with hinaatseel : tear thyself free like the gazelle from the hand into which thou hast fallen (Hitzig); according to which, the section should be accentuated thus: myd ktsby hntsl. ts|biy , Aram. E|biy, Arab. zaby, is the gazelle (Arab. ghazâl), so called from its elegance; tsipowr , the bird, from its whistling (tspr, Arab. tsafar, R. tsp, cf. Arab. saffârat, the whistling of a bird), Arab. safar, whistler (with prosthesis, 'atsafwar, warbler, Psalm. p. 794). The bird-catcher is called yaaqowsh (from yaaqosh , after the form yaakol , cog. qowsh , Isa 29:21, naaqash , R. qs), after the form baagowd (fem. baagowdaah ), or yaaquwsh ; one would think that the Kametz, after the form kâtwl (vid., under Isa 1:17), must here be fixed, but in Jer 5:26 the word is vocalized y|quwshiym .

TENTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 6:6-11

Call to the Sluggard to Awake Altera paraenesis (remarks J. H. Michaelis) ad debitorem potius directa, sicut prima ad fidejussorem. But this connection is a subtle invention.

These brief proverbial discourses, each of which forms a completed whole, have scarcely been a priori destined for this introduction to the Salomonic Book of Proverbs edited by the author; but he places them in it; and that he so arranges them that this section regarding sluggards follows that regarding sureties, may have been occasioned by accidental points of contact of the one with the other (cf. leek| , 6a, with 3b; sheenowt ...t|nuwmowt , v. 10, with v. 4), which may also further determine the course in which the proverbs follow each other.

PROVERBS. 6:6-11

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Verse 6-8. As Elihu (Job 35:11) says that God has set the beasts as our teachers, so he sends the sluggard to the school of the ant (Ameise), so named (in Germ.) from its industry (Emsigkeit): 6 Go to the ant, sluggard; Consider her ways, and be wise! 7 She that hath no judge, Director, and ruler: 8 She prepareth in summer her food, Has gathered in harvest her store.

The Dechî written mostly under the leek| separates the inseparable.

The thought, Go to the ant, sluggard! permits no other distinction than in the vocative; but the Dechî of 'el-nmlh leek| is changed into Munach (Note: Cod. 1294 accentuates 'l-nmlaah leek|; and that, according to Ben-Asher's rule, is correct.) on account of the nature of the Athnach-word, which consists of only two syllables without the counter-tone. The ant has for its Hebrew-Arabic name n|maalaah , from the R. nm (Isaiah, p. 687), which is first used of the sound, which expresses the idea of the low, dull, secret-thus of its active and yet unperceived motion; its Aramaic name in the Peshîto, _û_menaa', and in the Targ. shuwm|sh|maanaa' (also Arab. sumsum, simsim, of little red ants), designates it after its quick activity, its busy running hither and thither (vid., Fleischer in Levy's Chald. Wörterb. ii. 578). She is a model of unwearied and well-planned labour. From the plur. d|raakeyhaa it is to be concluded that the author observed their art in gathering in and laying up in store, carrying burdens, building their houses, and the like (vid., the passages in the Talmud and Midrash in the Hamburg Real-Encyclopädie für Bibel und Talmud, 1868, p. 83f.). To the ant the sluggard (`aatseel , Aram. and Arab. `Tl, with the fundamental idea of weight and dulness) is sent, to learn from her to be ashamed, and to be taught wisdom.

Verse 7. This relative clause describes the subject of v. 8 more fully: it is like a clause with kiy gam , quamquam. (Note: V. 7 is commonly halved by Rebia; but for the correct accentuation, vid., Torath Emeth, p. 48, §3.)

The community of ants exhibits a peculiar class of workers; but it is not, like that of bees, composed of grades germinating in the queen-bee as the head. The three offices here named represent the highest judiciary, police, and executive powers; for qaatsiyn (from qaatsaah , to distinguish, with the ending in, vid., Jesurun, p. 215 s.) is the judge; shoTeer (from shTr, Arab. satr, to draw lines, to write) is the overseer (in war the director, controller), or, as Saalschütz indicates the province of the schotrim both in cities and in the camp, the office of police; mosheel (vid., Isaiah, p. 691), the governors of the whole state organism subordinated to the schoftim and the schotrim. The Syr., and the Targ. slavishly following it, translate qtsyn by chats|daa' (harvest), for they interchange this word with qtsyr .

Verse 8. In this verse the change of the time cannot be occasioned by this, that qaayits and qaatsiyr are distinguished as the earlier and the later period of the year; for qayits (= Arab. kayt, from kât, to be glowing hot, cf. Arab. kghyyt of the glow of the mid-day heat) is the late summer, when the heat rises to the highest degree; but the son of the Shunammite succumbed to the sun-stroke in the time of harvest (2 Kings 4:18f.). Löwenstein judiciously remarks that taakiyn refers to immediate want, 'aag|raah to that which is future; or, better, the former shows them engaged in persevering industry during the summer glow, the latter as at the end of the harvest, and engaged in the bringing home of the winter stores. The words of the procuring of food in summer are again used by Agur, Prov 30:25; and the Aramaic fable of the ant and the grasshopper, (Note: Vid., Goldberg's Chofes Matmonim, Berlin 1845; and Landsberger's Berlin Graduation Thesis, Fabulae aliquot Aramaeae, 1846, p. 28.) which is also found among those of Aesop and of Syntipas, serves as an illustration of this whole verse. The LXX has, after the "Go to the ant," a proverb of five lines, ee' poreu'theeti pro's tee'n me'lissan. Hitzig regards it as of Greek origin; and certainly, as Lagarde has shown, it contains idiomatic Greek expressions which would not occur to a translator from the Hebrew. In any case, however, it is an interpolation which disfigures the Hebrew text by overlading it.

Verse 9-11. After the poet has admonished the sluggard to take the ant as an example, he seeks also to rouse him out of his sleepiness and indolence: 9 How long, O sluggard, wilt thou lie?

When wilt thou rise up from thy sleep? 10 "A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest!" 11 So comes like a strong robber thy poverty, And thy want as an armed man.

Verse 9-10. The awakening cry, v. 9, is not of the kind that Paul could have it in his mind, Eph 5:14. `aatseel has, as the vocative, Pasek after it, and is, on account of the Pasek, in correct editions accentuated not with Munach, but Mercha. The words, v. 10, are not an ironical call (sleep only yet a little while, but in truth a long while), but per mimesin the reply of the sluggard with which he turns away the unwelcome disturber. The plurals with m|`at sound like self-delusion: yet a little, but a sufficient! To fold the hands, i.e., to cross them over the breast, or put them into the bosom, denotes also, Eccl 4:5, the idler. chibuwq , complicatio (cf. in Livy, compressis quod aiunt manibus sidere; and Lucan, 2:292, compressas tenuisse manus), for formed like shiquwy , Prov 3:8, and the inf. sh|kab like chacar , 10:21, and sh|pal , 16:19. The perf. consec. connects itself with the words heard from the mouth of the sluggard, which are as a hypothetical antecedent thereto: if thou so sayest, and always again sayest, then this is the consequence, that suddenly and inevitably poverty and want come upon thee. That m|haleek| denotes the grassator, i.e., vagabond (Arab. dawwar, one who wanders much about), or the robber or foe (like the Arab. 'aduww, properly transgressor finium), is not justified by the usage of the language; heelek| signifies, 2 Sam 12:4, the traveller, and m|haleek| is one who rides quickly forward, not directly a kako's hodoipo'ros (LXX).

Verse 11. The point of comparison, 11a, is the unforeseen, as in quick march or assault (Böttcher), and 11b the hostile and irretrievable surprise; for a man in armour, as Hitzig remarks, brings no good in his armour: he assails the opponent, and he who is without defence yields to him without the possibility of withstanding him. The LXX translate mgn k'ysh by hoo'sper agatho's dromeu's (cf. dromeu's = mny-'rg, Job 7:6, LXX, Aq.), for what reason we know not. After v. they interpose two other lines: "but if thou art assiduous, thy harvest will come to thee as a fountain, but want will go away hoo'sper kako's dromeu's ." Also this "bad runner" we must let go; for Lagarde's retranslation, naamog b|'iysh k|chaash wmchcrk, no one can understand.

The four lines, vv. 10, 11 are repeated in the appendix of Words of the Wise, Prov 24:33f.; and if this appendix originated in the time of Hezekiah, they may have been taken therefrom by the poet, the editor of the older Book of Proverbs. Instead of kim|haleek| , mit|haleek| is there used (so comes forward thy poverty, i.e., again and again, but certainly moving forward); and instead of mchcrk, mchcryk is written, as also here, v. 6, for mshntek is found the variant mshnteyk with Jod as mater lectionis of the pausal Segol.

ELEVENTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 6:12-19

Warning against Deceit and Malice PROVERBS 6:12-19 A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

There follows now a third brief series of instructions, which run to a conclusion with a deterring prospect similar to the foregoing. 12 A worthless man, a wicked man, Is he who practiseth falsehood with his mouth; 13 Who winketh with his eyes, scrapeth with his foot, Pointeth with his fingers. 14 Malice is in his heart, He deviseth evil at all times, He spreadeth strife. 15 Therefore suddenly his destruction shall come, Suddenly shall he be destroyed, and there is no remedy.

It is a question, what is the subject and what the predicate in v. 12. Thus much is clear, that upon him who is here described according to his deceitful conduct the sentence of condemnation shall fall. He who is so described is thus subject, and b|liya`al 'aadaam is without doubt predicate. But does the complex subject begin with 'aawen 'iysh ? Thus e.g., Hitzig: "A worthless man is the wicked man who...." But the interchange of 'dm and 'ysh is a sign of parallel relation; and if 12b belonged attributively to 'wn 'ysh, then since haa'aawen 'iysh is not used, it ought at least to have been continued by hahowleek| . The general moral categories, 12a, are thus predicates, as was indeed besides probable; the copious division of the subject demands also in point of style a more developed predicate.

Prov 16:27 is simpler in plan, and also logically different.

There the expression is, as is usual, bly`l 'iysh. Since 'wn 'dm is not possible, the author uses instead bly`l. This word, composed of b|liy and ya`al (from yaa`al , waa`al, to be useful, to be good for), so fully serves as one word, that it even takes the article, 1 Sam 25:25. It denotes worthlessness, generally in a chain of words in the genitive, but also the worthless, Job 34:18; and it is to be so taken here, for 'aadaam does not form a constructivus, and never governs a genitive. bly`l is thus a virtual adjective (as nequam in homo nequam); the connection is like that of raashaa` 'dm , Prov 11:7, and elsewhere, although more appositional than this pure attributive.

Synonymous with bly`l is 'aawen (from an, to breathe), wickedness, i.e., want of all moral character. Thus worthless and wicked is he who practises deceit with his mouth (cf. 4:24), i.e., who makes language the means of untruthfulness and uncharitableness. peh `iq|shuwt is meant in a moral sense, but without excluding that distortion of the mouth which belongs to the mimicry of the malicious. It is the accus. of the object; for haalak| is also bound in a moral sense with the accusative of that which one practises, i.e., dealing with, exercises himself in, 2:7; 28:18, Isa 33:15.

Verse 13. b|`eeynaayw qowreets is translated according to the sense: who winks (nictat) with his eyes; but that is not the proper meaning of the word, for qrts is used not only of the eyes. Prov 10:10 (cf. 16:30, qui oculos morsicat or connivet), Ps 35:19, but also of the lips, 16:30. Thus Löwenstein's explanation: who opens up the eyes, is incorrect. The verb qrts unites in it the meanings of Arab. qrts, to pinch off with a sharp implement, and Arab. qrd, with a blunt instrument (Arab. mikrad, pincers). It means to pince, to nip, as Arab. kars, pincer- e.g., karts balskyn alarsasat, he cuts off with the knife the leaden seal-hence frequently, to nip together the eyes, provincially: to wink ("zwickern," frequent. of "zwicken," to nip) with the eyes-the action of the deceiver, who thereby gives the sign to others that they help or at least do not hinder him from bantering and mocking, belying and deceiving a third person (Fl.); cf. Ali's proverb, "O God, pardon to us the culpable winking with the eye (ramzat)," and Fleischer's notes thereon, the Proverbs of Ali, p. 100f.

That the words which follow, b|rag|laayw mowleel , are meant of discourse, i.e., the giving of signs, with the feet, and, so to say, significant oratio pedestris (LXX, Aben-Ezra, Bertheau, Hitzig, and others), is very improbable, since the usage of language has set apart the Piel mileel for the meaning loqui, and mwll admits another suitable signification, for mowleel means in Talmudic fricare, confricare- e.g., mlylwt hmwll, he who grinds the parched ears of corn (b. Beza 12b; Ma'seroth, iv. 5)-after which Syr., Targ., taakeec (stamping), Aq. tri'boon , Symm. prostri'boon, Jerome, (qui) terit pede, and Rashi mshpshp (grinding, scratching); it means one who scrapes with his feet, draws them backwards and forwards on the ground in order thereby to give a sign to others; also the Arab. mll, levem et agilem esse, which as the synonym of Arab. 'sr' is connected with Arab. fî of the way, signifies properly to move the feet quickly hither and thither (Fl.). (Note: The root-idea of the Arab. mall is unquietness of motion; the Arab. noun mallt signifies the glow with its flickering light and burning: glowing ashes, inner agitation, external haste; Arab. malil (maaleel) is the feverish patient, but also one quickly hastening away, and generally an impatient or hasty person (vid., Wetstein in Baudissin in his Job. Tischendorfianus, vii. 6). The grinding is made by means of a quick movement hither and thither; and so also is speaking, for the instrument of speech, particularly the tongue, is set in motion. Only the meaning praecidere, circumcidere, does not connect itself with that root-idea: ml in this signification appears to be a nüance of mr, stringere.) moreh appears here, in accordance with its primary signification (projicere, sc. brachium or digitum = monstrare), connected with b|'ets|b|`otaayw ; another expression for this scornful, malicious daktulodeiknei'n is 'ets|ba` sh|lach , Isa 58:9.

Verse 14. In this verse is continued the description of the subject, only once returning to the particip. The clauses are arranged independently, but logically according to the complex conception of the subject. tah|pukowt are just the knaveries, i.e., the malicious wickedness which comes to light in word and deportment as ph `qshwt . Regarding the double figure of the smithy and of agriculture underlying chrsh , machinari, vid., at Prov 3:29, and regarding the omission of the huw' to choreesh , at Ps 7:10. The phrase mdnym shileeach (as v. 19, Prov 16:28), to let loose disputes, so that they break forth, reminds us rather of the unfettering of the winds by Aeolus than of the casting in of the apple of discord. Instead of mdnym the Kerî has mid|yaaniym ; on the other hand, m|daaniym remains uncorrected 6:19; 10:12. The form mid|yaaniym occurs once, 18:18, and its constr. mid|y|neey once, 19:13. Everywhere else the text has mdwnym, for which the Kerî has mid|yaaniym , 18:19; 21:9,19; 23:29; 25:24; 26:21; 27:15.

The forms mid|yaan and m|daan are also recognised: the former stands alone without any analogous example; the latter is compared at least with m|tsaad, Arab. masâd (Psalmen, p. 163, 3). Probably these two forms are warranted by Gen 25:2, cf. 37:28,36, where mid|yaan and m|daan occur as the names of two sons of Abraham by Keturah. But the national name mid|yaaniym is no reason for the seven times laying aside of the regular form mdwnym, i.e., m|downiym, which is the plur. of maadown after the forms m|'owriym, m|`owriym, although m|duwniym, after the forms m|buwshiym, m|tsuwqiym, is also found.

Verse 15. With the 14th verse the description terminates. A worthless and a wicked person is he who does such things. The point lies in the characteristic out of which the conclusion is drawn: therefore his ruin will suddenly come upon him, etc. Regarding 'eeyd , the root-meaning of which is illustrated by Amos 2:13, vid., at Prov 1:26. pit|'om is an old accus. of an absol. peete', of the same meaning as peta` , used as an adverbial accus., both originating in the root-idea of splitting, opening, breaking out and breaking forth. "Shall be broken to pieces" (as a brittle potter's vessel, Ps 2:9; Isa 30:14; Jer 29:11) is a frequent figure for the destruction (sheber ) of an army (cf. Arab. ânksar âljysh), of a city or a state, a man. w|'eeyn continues the yishaabeer as Prov 29:1: there shall be as it were no means of recovery for his shattered members (Fl.). Without the Vav this mar|pee' 'eeyn would be a clause conceived of accusatively, and thus adverbially: without any healing.

Verse 16-17. What now follows is not a separate section (Hitzig), but the corroborative continuation of that which precedes. The last word (mdnym, strife) before the threatening of punishment, 14b, is also here the last. The thought that no vice is a greater abomination to God than the (in fact satanical) striving to set men at variance who love one another, clothes itself in the form of the numerical proverb which we have already considered, pp. 10, 11. From that place we transfer the translation of this example of a Midda:- 16 There are six things which Jahve hateth, And seven are an abhorrence to His soul: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood; 18 An heart that deviseth the thoughts of evil, Feet that hastily run to wickedness,19 One that uttereth lies as a false witness, And he who soweth strife between brethren.

The sense is not, that the six things are hateful to God, and the seventh an abomination to Him besides (Löwenstein); the Midda-form in Amos 1:3- 2:6, and in the proverb in Job 5:19, shows that the seven are to be numbered separately, and the seventh is the non plus ultra of all that is hated by God. We are not to translate: sex haecce odit, for heemaah , heenaah , (heem , heen ) points backwards and hitherwards, but not, as 'eeleh , forwards to that immediately following; in that case the words would be 'lh shsh , or more correctly h'lh shsh . But also Hitzig's explanation, "These six things (viz., vv. 12-15) Jahve hateth," is impossible; for (which is also against that haecce) the substantive pronoun hmh , hnh (haahmh, haahnh) is never, like the Chald. himown (himow ), employed as an accus. in the sense of 'et|hem , 'et|hen , it is always (except where it is the virtual gen. connected with a preposition) only the nom., whether of the subject or of the predicate; and where it is the nom. of the predicate, as Deut 20:15; Isa 51:19, substantival clauses precede in which hnh (hmh ) represents the substantive verb, or, more correctly, in which the logical copula resulting from the connection of the clause itself remains unexpressed.

Accordingly, h' saanee' is a relative clause, and is therefore so accentuated here, as at Prov 30:15 and elsewhere: sex (sunt) ea quae Deus odit, et septem (sunt) abominatio animae ejus. Regarding the statement that the soul of God hates anything, vid., at Isa 1:14. tw`bwt, an error in the writing occasioned by the numeral (vid., Prov 26:25), is properly corrected by the Kerî; the poet had certainly the singular in view, as 3:32; 11:1, when he wrote tw`bt . The first three characteristics are related to each other as mental, verbal, actual, denoted by the members of the body by means of which these characteristics come to light. The virtues are taken all together as a body (organism), and meekness is its head.

Therefore there stands above all, as the sin of sins, the mentis elatae tumor, which expresses itself in elatum (grande) supercilium: raamowt `eeynayim , the feature of the raam , haughty (cf. Ps 18:28 with 2 Sam 22:28), is the opposite of the feature of the `ynym shach , Job 22:29; `ayin is in the O.T. almost always (vid., Song 4:9) fem., and adjectives of course form no dual. The second of these characteristics is the lying tongue, and the third the murderous hands. daam-naaqiy is innocent blood as distinguished from hanaaqiy dam , the blood of the innocent, Deut 19:13. (Note: The writing daam follows the Masoretic rule, vid., Kimchi, Michlol 205b, and Heidenheim under Deut 19:10, where in printed editions of the text (also in Norzi's) the irregular form nqy dam is found. Besides, the Metheg is to be given to daam- , so that one may not read it dom, as e.g., sheesh-m'wt, Gen 7:11, that one may not read it shesh- .)

Verse 18. The fourth characteristic is a deceitful heart. On choreesh , vid., v. 14, Prov 3:29, and on 'aayen, v. 12. The fifth: feet running with haste to evil; laaraa`aah as laaraa` in Isa 59:7, echoing the distich 1:16, as here, 17b and 18b. The connection laaruwts mihar , propere cucurrit (contrast l| 'eechar ), is equivalent to maheer raats .

Verse 19. the sixth: "A speaker of lies, a tongue of falsehood," is hateful to God. It is one subject which is thus doubly characterized. k|zaabiym are fictions, and sheqer is the disfiguring (deformatio) of the actual facts. They are purposely placed together in this connection. The derivations of these synonyms are obscure; Fürst gives to the former the root-idea of spinning (properly knotting together), and to the latter that of painting. kzbym is introduced to support shqr. (Note: Isaak Albo thus distinguishes these synonyms in his dogmatic, bearing the title `qrym cpr, 2:27.)

It would also be verbally permissible to interpret sheqer 'eed in the sense of shqr `eeduwt, like Prov 25:18, as in apposition to kzbym; but in the nearest parallel, 14:15, the idea is personal, for it is said of the shqr `d that he breathes out lies. In that place there can be no doubt that the clause is a verbal one, and yaapiyach finitum, viz., Hiph. of puwach. This Hiph. signifies elsewhere also sufflare, 20:8, afflare, Ps 10:5; Ezek 21:26, perflare, Song 4:16, anhelare (desiderare), Ps 12:6; Hab 2:3, but with kzbym, efflare, a synonym to diber , as hibiya` and hiTiyp, which has (cf. Prov 12:17) no secondary meaning in use, but is mostly connected with kzbym, not without reference to the fact that that which is false is without reality and is nothing more than wrwch hbl. But what kind of a form is ypych, where it is not, as 14:5, the predicate of a verbal clause, but in connection with kzbym, as here and at 14:25; 19:5,9 (once with 'mwnh, 12:17), is the subject of a substantival clause?

That which lies nearest is to regard it as a noun formed from the fut. Hiph.

Such formations we indeed meet only among proper names, such as yaa'iyr , yaakiyn , yaaqiym ; however, at least the one n. appell. yaariyb (an adversary) is found, which may be formed from the Hiph. as well as from the Kal. But should not the constr. of ypych after the form yryb be y|piyach? One does not escape from this consideration by deriving ypych, after the forms yaagiya`, yaachiyl , yaadiyd, yaashiysh , and the like, from a secondary verb yaapach , the existence of which is confirmed by Jer 4:31, and from which also yaapeeach, Ps 27:12, appears to be derived, although it may be reduced also, after the form yaareeb (with yaariyb ), to heepiyach. But in this case also one expects as a connecting form y|piyach like y|diyd , as in reality y|peeach from yaapeeach (cf. 'abeel , s|meeheey, from 'aabeel , saameeach ).

Shall it now be assumed that the Kametz is treated as fixed? This were contrary to rule, since it is not naturally long. Thus the connection is not that of the genitive. But if ypych were a substantive formed with the preformative of the second modus like yal|quwT 1 Sam 17:40, or were it a participial intensive form of active signification such as naabiy' , then the verbal force remaining in it is opposed to the usage of the language. There remains nothing further, therefore, than to regard yaapiyach as an attributive put in the place of a noun: one who breathes out; and there is a homogeneous example of this, for in any other way we cannot explain yowciyp , Eccl 1:18. In 19b the numeral proverb reaches its point. The chief of all that God hates is he who takes a fiendish delight in setting at variance men who stand nearly related. Thus this brief proverbial discourse rounds itself off, coming again to 14b as a refrain.

TWELFTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE,. 6:20-35

Warning against Adultery, by Reference to Its Fearful Consequences PROVERBS 6:20-21 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

After these three smaller sections, the teacher of wisdom returns here to the theme of the eighth: Warning against sins of the flesh, whose power and prevalence among men is so immeasurably great, that their terrible consequences cannot sufficiently be held up before them, particularly before youth. 20 Keep, my son, the commandment of thy father, And reject not the instruction of thy mother. 21 Bind them to thy heart evermore, Fasten them about thy neck.

The suff. -eem refers to the good doctrine (cf. Prov 7:3) pointed out by mits|waah and towraah ; the masc. stands, as is usual (e.g., 1:16; 5:2), instead of the fem. Regarding the figure, reminding us of the Tefillin and of Amuletes for perpetual representation, vid., under 3:3.

Similarly of persons, Song 8:6. The verb `aanad (only here and Job 31:36) signifies to bend, particularly to bend aside (Arab. 'ind, bending off, going aside; accus. as adv., aside, apud), and to bend up, to wind about, circumplicare.

PROVERBS. 6:22

When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

The representation of the good doctrine is now personified, and becomes identified with it. When thou walkest, it will guide thee; When thou liest down, it will keep watch over thee; And when thou wakest, it will talk with thee.

The subject is the doctrine of wisdom, with which the representation of wisdom herself is identified. the futures are not expressive of a wish or of an admonition, but of a promise; the form of the third clause shows this.

Thus, and in the same succession as in the schema Deut 6:7, cf. Prov 11:19, are the three circumstances of the outward life distinguished: going, lying down, and rising up. The punctuation b|hit|hlkk, found here and there, is Ben-Naphtali's variant; Ben-Asher and also the Textus rec. reject the Metheg in this case, vid., Baer's Metheg-Setzung, §28. The verb naachaah , with its Hiph. in a strengthened Kal-signification, is more frequently found in the Psalms than in the Proverbs; the Arab. nh' shows that it properly signifies to direct (dirigere), to give direction, to move in a definite direction. shaamar with `al , to take into protection, we had already 2:11; this author has favourite forms of expression, in the repetition of which he takes delight. With lying down, sleeping is associated. wahaqiytsowtaa is, as Ps 139:18, the hypoth. perf., according to Ewald, §357a: et ut expergefactus es, illa te compellabit.

Bertheau incorrectly: she will make thee thoughtful. But apart from the fact that there is no evidence of the existence of this Hiph. in the language of the Bible, the personification demands a clearer figure. siyach (suwach) signifies mental speech and audible speech (Gen 24:63, poet., in the Talmudic (Note: The conjecture thrown out by Wetstein, that (Arab.) shykh is equivalent to msych (mcych), speaker, is untenable, since the verb shakh, to be old, a so-called munsarif, i.e., conjugated throughout, is used in all forms, and thus is certainly the root of the shykh.) a common word); with b, speaking concerning something (fabulari de), Ps 69:13; with the accus., that which is said of a thing, Ps 145:5, or the address, briefly for l| sych , Job 12:8 (as migeen with accus.

Prov 4:9 = l| mgn ): when thou art awake, wisdom will forthwith enter into conversation with thee, and fill thy thoughts with right matter, and give to thy hands the right direction and consecration.

PROVERBS. 6:23

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

Since in hiy' the idea of wisdom and of wholesome doctrine lie in one another, the author can proceed with proof: For a lamp is the commandment, and instruction a light (Jerome et lex lux); And a way of life, disciplinary reproofs.

That twrh has here not the positive, specifically Israelitish sense, but the generalized sense of instruction in conformity with truth regarding the will of God and the duty of man, vid., p. 42. This instruction mediated by man, but of divine origin, is 'owr , light, which enlightens the man who submits to it; and the commandment, mits|waah , which directs men in every case to do what is right, and forbids that which is wrong (including the prohibition Lev 4:2), is neer , a lamp which, kindled at that light, enlightens all the darkness of ignorance with reference to human conduct and its consequences. 'wr and nr are related to each other as general and particular, primary and derivative. Löwenstein accentuates incorrectly 'owr w|towraah instead of 'owr w|towraah (as the Cod. 1294 and the 3 Erfurt Codd.); vid., on the retrogression of the tone, not existing here, under Prov 3:15. The gen. muwcaar denotes the object or character of the admonition: not disciplinary in the external sense of the word, but rather moral, having in view discipline in the sense of education, i.e., moral edification and elevation. Such corrections are chayiym derek| , the way to true life, direction how to obtain it.

PROVERBS. 6:24

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

The section thus closes: To keep thee from the vile woman, From the flatery of the strange tongue.

Regarding the genitive connection raa` 'eeshet , a woman of a wicked character, vid., under Prov 2:14; and regarding the adjectival connection nkryh lshwn, under v. 17; the strange tongue is the tongue (l|shown ) of the strange (foreign) woman (vid., p. 58), alluring with smooth words (2:16). Ewald, Bertheau: from her of a smooth tongue, the stranger, as Symm., Theod., apo' leiogloo'ssou xe'nees; but chel|qat is a substantive (Gen 27:16), and as a fem. adject. form is without an example. Rather laashown hlqt is to be regarded as the first member and nkryh as the second of the st. constr., for the former constitutes one idea, and lswn on this account remains unabbreviated; cf. Ps 68:22; Isa 28:1; but (1) this syntactical phenomenon is yet problematical, vid., Friedr. Philippi, Wesen und Ursprung des St. Constr. p. 17; and (2) the supposition of such an anomaly is here unnecessary.

PROVERBS. 6:25-26

Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

The proaemium of these twelve proverbial discourses is now at an end.

Wisdom herself begins striking the note of the Decalogue: 25 Long not for her beauty in thy heart, And let her not catch thee with her eyelids; 26 Because for a harlot one cometh down to a piece of bread, And a man's wife lieth in wait for a precious soul.

The warning 25a is in the spirit of the "thou shalt not covet," Ex 20:17, and the en tee' kardi'a autou' , Matt 5:28, of the Preacher on the Mount. The Talmudic proverb m`byrh qsw `byrh hrhwdy (Joma 29a) means only that the imagination of the sinful act exhausts the body even more than the act itself. The warning, "let her not catch thee with her eyelids," refers to her (the adulteress's) coquettish ogling and amorous winking. In the reason added, beginning with b|`ad- kiy (thus it is to be punctuated), there is the appositional connection zownaah 'ishaah , Gesen. §113; the idea of zwnh goes over into 26b. "lechem kikar = kir|kaar, R. kr, to round, vid., at Gen 49:5, properly a circle of bread, is a small round piece of bread, such as is still baked in Italy (pagnotta) and in the East (Arab. kurts), here an expression for the smallest piece" (Fl.). b|`ad (constr. of ba`ad ), as Job 2:4; Isa 32:14, is used in the sense of hupe'r , pro, and with `ad there is connected the idea of the coming down to this low point.

Ewald, Bertheau explain after the LXX, timee' ga'r po'rnees ho'see kai' heno's a'rtou gunee' de' androo'n timi'as psucha's agreu'ei. But nothing is said here of price (reward); the parallelism is synonymous, not antithetic: he is doubly threatened with loss who enters upon such a course. The adulterer squanders his means (Prov 29:3) to impoverishment (vid., the mention of a loaf of bread in the description of poverty 1 Sam 2:36), and a man's wife (but at the same time seeking converse with another) makes a prey of a precious soul; for whoever consents to adulterous converse with her, loses not perhaps his means, but certainly freedom, purity, dignity of soul, yea, his own person. tsuwd comprehends-as tsiydown , fisher's town Zidon, Arab. tsyâd, hunter and fisher, show-all kinds of hunting, but in Hebr. is used only of the hunting of wild beasts. The rootmeaning (cf. ts|diyaah ) is to spy, to seize.

PROVERBS. 6:27-29

Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

The moral necessity of ruinous consequences which the sin of adultery draws after it, is illustrated by examples of natural cause and effect necessarily connected: 27 Can one take fire in his bosom And his clothes not be burned? 28 Or can any one walk over burning coals And his feet not be burned? 29 So he that goeth to his neighbour's wife, No one remains unpunished that toucheth her.

We would say: Can any one, without being, etc.; the former is the Semitic "extended (paratactic) (Note: The parataktiko's chro'nos denotes the imperfect tense, because it is still extended to the future.]) construction." The first 'iysh has the conjunctive Shalsheleth. chaataah signifies to seize and draw forth a brand or coal with the firetongs or shovel (mach|taah , the instrument for this); cf. Arab. khât, according to Lane, "he seized or snatched away a thing;" the form yach|teh is Kal, as yachaneh (vid., Köhler, De Tetragammate, 1867, p. 10). cheeyq (properly indentation) is here not the lap, but, as Isa 40:11, the bosom.

Verse 28. A second example of destructive consequences naturally following a certain course is introduced with 'im of the double question. gechaaliym (from gechaal , after the form pechaam , but for which gachelet is used) is the regular modification of gahhalîm (Gesen. §27, 2). The fem. w|rag|laayw is followed here (cf. on the other hand Prov 1:16) by the rhythmically full-sounding form tikaaweynaah (retaining the distinction of gender), from kaawaah , Arab. kwy, to burn so that a brand-mark (kiy , Isa 3:24, cauterium) remains.

Verse 29. The instruction contained in these examples here follows: to' eis pu'r kai' eis gunai'ka empesei'n i'son hupa'rchei (Pythagoras in Maximi Eclog. c. 39). 'el bow' is here, as the second in Ps 51:1, a euphemism, and b| naaga` , to come in contact with, means, as 'el ng` , to touch, Gen 20:6. He who goes in to his neighbour's wife shall not do so with impunity (naaqiy ). Since both expressions denote fleshly nearness and contact, so it is evident he is not guiltless.

PROVERBS. 6:30-31

Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; The thief and the adulterer are not placed in comparison with one another, in such a way that adultery is supposed to be a yet greater crime. 30 One does not treat the thief scornfully if he steals To satisfy his craving when he is hungry; 31 Being seized, he may restore sevenfold, Give up the whole wealth of his house.

For the most part 30a is explained: even when this is the case, one does not pass it over in the thief as a bagatelle. Ewald remarks: l buwz stands here in its nearest signification of overlooking, whence first follows that of contemning. But this "nearest" signification is devised wholly in favour of this passage;-the interpretation, "they do not thus let the thief pass," is set aside by Song 8:1,7; for by 31b, cf. Song 8:7b, and 34a, cf. Song 8:6a, it is proved that from v. 30 on, reminiscences from the Canticles, which belong to the literature of the Chokma, find their way into the Mashal language of the author. Hitzig's correct supposition, that l buwz always signifies positive contemning, does not necessitate the interrogative interpretation: "Does not one despise the thief if...?" Thus to be understood, the author ought to have written ky 'p or ky gm .

Michaelis rightly: furtum licet merito pro infami in republica habetur, tamen si cum adulterio comparatur, minus probrosum est. Regarding nepesh in the sense of appetite, and even throat and stomach, vid., Psychologie, p. 204. A second is, that the thief, if he is seized (but we regard w|nim|tsaa' not as the hypoth. perf., but as the part. deprehensus), may make compensation for this crime. The fut. y|shaleem thus to be understood as the potential lies near from this, that a sevenfold compensation of the thing stolen is unheard of in the Israelitish law; it knows only of a twofold, fourfold, fivefold restoration, Ex. 21:37; 22:1-3,8 (cf. Saalschütz, Mos. Recht, p. 554ff.). This excess over that which the law rendered necessary leads into the region of free-will: he (the thief, by which we are now only to think of him whom bitter necessity has made such) may make compensation sevenfold, i.e., superabundantly; he may give up the whole possessions (vid., on hown at Prov 1:13) of his house, so as not merely to satisfy the law, but to appease him against whom he has done wrong, and again to gain for himself an honoured name.

What is said in vv. 30 and 31 is perfectly just. One does not contemn a man who is a thief through poverty, he is pitied; while the adulterer goes to ruin under all circumstances of contempt and scorn. And: theft may be made good, and that abundantly; but adultery and its consequences are irreparable.

PROVERBS. 6:32-33

But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

Here there is a contrast stated to v. 30: 32 He who commits adultery (adulterans mulierem) is beside himself, A self-destroyer-who does this. 33 He gains stripes and disgrace, And his reproach is never quenched. naa'ap , which primarily seems to mean excedere, to indulge in excess, is, as also in the Decalogue, cf. Lev 20:10, transitive: ho moicheu'oon gunai'ka . Regarding being mad (herzlos = heartless) = amens (excors, vecors), vid., Psychologie, p. 254. nap|show mash|chiyt is he who goes to ruin with wilful perversity. A selfmurderer- i.e., he intends to ruin his position and his prosperity in life-who does it, viz., this, that he touches the wife of another. It is the worst and most inextinguishable dishonouring of oneself. Singularly Behaji: who annihilates it (his soul), with reference to Deut 21:12. Eccl. 4:17, where `sh would be equivalent to biTeel, katargei'n , which is untrue and impossible. (Note: Behaji ought rather to have referred to Zeph 3:19; Ezek 7:27; 22:14; but there 't `sh means agere cum aliquo, as we say: mit jemandem abrechnen (to settle accounts with any one).) nega` refers to the corporal punishment inflicted on the adulterer by the husband (Deut 17:8; 21:5); Hitzig, who rejects v. 32, refers it to the stripes which were given to the thief according to the law, but these would be called makaah (makowt ). The punctuation nega`- w|qaalown is to be exchanged for w|qaalown nega` (Löwenstein and other good editors). maatsaa' has a more active signification than our "finden" (to find): consequitur, tugcha'nei.

PROVERBS 6:34,35 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

One who has been stolen from is to be appeased, but not the injured husband. 34 For jealousy is the fury of a husband, And he spareth not in the day of vengeance. 35 He regardeth not any ransom, And is not contented though thou offerest to him gifts ever so great.

The connection marks qin|'aah as the subject; for it respects carnal intercourse with another's wife. Jealousy is not usually cheemaah , the glow of anger (from yaacham, as sheenaah from yaasheen ), but chamat-gaaber (constr. as sh|nat ), the glow of a man's anger, who with the putting forth of all his manly strength will seek satisfaction to his wounded honour. geber , here significant for 'iysh , with the fundamental idea of strength, firmness; cf. Arab. jabr, to make fast, to put right again something broken in pieces, particularly a broken vessel, hence Algebra, properly the operation by which an incomplete magnitude is completed (Fl.). The following w|lo'-yach|mol (with the orthophonic Dagesh, as v. 25 yach|mod , and with Makkeph) is connected with gbr , with definite reference to the man whom the faithless guest has made a cuckold.

When the day comes in which the adultery brought to light demands and admits of vengeance, then, wounded in his right and in his honour, he knows no mercy; he pays no regard to any atonement or recompense by which the adulterer seeks to appease him and induce him not to inflict the punishment that is due: he does not consent, even though thou makest ever so great the gift whereby thou thinkest to gain him. The phrase paaniym naasaa' , pro'soopon lamba'nein , signifies elsewhere to receive the countenance, i.e., the appearance and the impression of a man, i.e., to let it impress one favourably; here it is used of the koper , i.e., the means by which covering, i.e., non-punishment, pardon of the crime, impunity of the guilty, is obtained. Regarding 'aabaah , to consent to, vid., at Prov 1:10. shochad , Aram. shuwchad, is a gift, particularly bribery. That the language may again finally assume the form of an address, it beautifully rounds itself off.

THIRTEENTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, Warning against Adultery by the Representation of Its Abhorrent and Detestable Nature as Seen in The fearful desolation which adultery, and in general the sin of uncleanness, occasions in the life of the individual who is guilty of it, as well as in society, does not suffer the author of this discourse, directed to youth, to abandon his theme, which he has already treated of under different aspects. He takes up his warning once more, strengthens it by an example he himself had witnessed of one who fell a sacrifice to this sin, and gives it a very impressive conclusion, v. 24ff.

PROVERBS. 7:1-3

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

Verse 1-3. The introduction first counsels in general to a true appreciation of these well-considered life-rules of wisdom. 1 My son, keep my words, And treasure up my commandments with thee. 2 Keep my commandments, and thou shalt live; And my instruction as the apple of thine eye. 3 Wind them about thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.

The LXX has after v. 1 another distich; but it here disturbs the connection.

Regarding tsaapan , vid., at Prov 2:1; 'itaak| refers, as there, to the sphere of one's own character, and that subjectively. Regarding the imper. wech|yeh , which must here be translated according to its sense as a conclusion, because it comes in between the objects governed by sh|mor , vid., at 4:4. There wech|yeeh is punctuated with Silluk; here, according to Kimchi (Michlol 125a), with Segol-Athnach, wech|yeh , as in the Cod. Erfurt. 2 and 3, and in the editions of Athias and Clodius, so that the word belongs to the class b'tnch ptchyn (with short instead of long vowel by the pausal accent): no reason for this is to be perceived, especially as (4:4) the Tsere (ê from aj) which is characteristic of the imper. remains unchanged. Regarding haa`ayin 'iyshown , Arab. insân el-'ain, the little man of the eye, i.e., the apple of the eye, named from the miniature portrait of him who looks into it being reflected from it, vid., at Ps 17:8; the ending ôn is here diminutive, like Syr. Achuno, little brother, beruno, little son, and the like. On v. 3, vid., at Prov 6:21; 3:3. The yd shl tpylyn (Note: tpylyn, prayer-fillets, phylacteries.) were wound seven times round the left arm and seven times round the middle finger. The writing on the table of the heart may be regarded as referring to Deut 6:9 (the Mezuzoth). (Note: = the door-posts, afterwards used by the Jews to denote the passages of Scripture written on the door-posts.]) PROVERBS 7:4-5 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

The subject-matter of this earnest warning are the admonitions of the teacher of wisdom, and through him of Wisdom herself, who in contrast to the world and its lust is the worthiest object of love, and deserves to be loved with the purest, sincerest love: 4 Say to wisdom: "Thou art my sister!"

And call understanding "Friend;" 5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who useth smooth words.

The childlike, sisterly, and friendly relationship serves also to picture forth and designate the intimate confidential relationship to natures and things which are not flesh and blood. If in Arabic the poor is called the brother of poverty, the trustworthy the brother of trustworthiness, and abu, um ('eem ), achu, ucht, are used in manifold ways as the expression for the interchangeable relation between two ideas; so (as also, notwithstanding Ewald, §273b, in many Hebr. proper names) that has there become national, which here, as at Job 17:14; 30:29, mediated by the connection of the thoughts, only first appears as a poetic venture. The figurative words of v. 4 not merely lead us to think of wisdom as a personal existence of a higher order, but by this representation it is itself brought so near, that 'eem easily substitutes itself, Prov 2:3, in the place of 'im . 'achotiy of Solomon's address to the bride brought home is in its connection compared with Book of Wisdom 8:2.

While the ôth of 'aachowt by no means arises from abstr. ûth, but achôth is derived from achajath, mowda` (as Ruth 2:1, cf. mowda`at , Prov 3:2), here by Mugrash mowdaa`, properly means acquaintance, and then the person known, but not in the superficial sense in which this word and the Arab. ma'arfat are used (e.g., in the Arabic phrase quoted by Fleischer, kanna atshaab tsarna m'aaraf-nous etions amis, nous en sommes plus que de simples connaissances), but in the sense of familiar, confidential alliance. The infin. lish|maar|kaa does not need for its explanation some intermediate thought to be introduced: quod eo conducet tibi ut (Mich.), but connects itself immediately as the purpose: bind wisdom to thyself and thyself to wisdom thus closely that thou mayest therewith guard thyself. As for the rest, vid., 2:16; this verse repeats itself here with the variation of one word.

PROVERBS. 7:6-7

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, How necessary it is for the youth to guard himself by the help of wisdom against the enticements of the wanton woman, the author now shows by a reference to his own observation. 6 For through the window of my house, From behind the lattice I looked out; 7 Then saw I among the simple ones, Discerned among the young people, a youth devoid of understanding. kiy refers indeed to the immediately following clause, yet it actually opens up the whole following exemplification. The connection with v. would be closer if instead of the extended Semitic construction it were said: nam quum...prospicerem vidi, etc. chalown (from chaalal , to bore through) is properly a place where the wall is bored through. 'esh|naab (from shaanab = Arab. shaniba, to be agreeable, cool, fresh) is the window-lattice or lattice-window, i.e., lattice for drawing down and raising up, which keeps off the rays of the sun. nish|qap signifies primarily to make oneself long in order to see, to stretch up or out the neck and the head, karadokei'n, atall, atal'a, and tatall'a of things, imminere, to overtop, to project, to jut in; cf. Arab. askaf of the ostrich, long and bent, with respect to the neck stretching it up, sakaf, abstr. crooked length.

And b|`ad is thus used, as in Arab. duna, but not b'ad, is used: so placed, that one in relation to the other obstructs the avenue to another person or thing: "I looked forth from behind the lattice-window, i.e., with respect to the persons or things in the room, standing before the latticewindow, and thus looking out into the open air" (Fleischer). That it was far in the night, as we learn at v. 9, does not contradict this looking out; for apart from the moon, and especially the lighting of the streets, there were star-lit nights, and to see what the narrator saw there was no night of Egyptian darkness. But because it was night 6a is not to be translated: I looked about among those devoid of experience (thus e.g., Löwenstein); but he saw among these, observed among the youths, who thus late amused themselves without, a young man whose want of understanding was manifest from what further happened. Bertheau: that I might see, is syntactically impossible. The meaning of waa'eere' is not determined by the 'aabiynaah following, but conversely 'aabiynaah stands under the operation of waa (= waa'aabynh, Neh 13:7), characterizing the historic aorist. Regarding p|tiy , vid., at Prov 1:4. baaniym is the masc. of baanowt , Arab. benât in the meaning maiden. babaaniym has in correct texts, according to the rules of the accents, the b raphatum. (Note: Regarding the Targ. of Prov 7:6-7, vid., Perles, Etymologische Studien, 1871, p. 9.)

PROVERBS 7:8,9 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, Now follows, whither he saw the young fop \Laffen then go in the darkness. 8 Going up and down the street near her corner, And he walked along the way to her house,9 In the twilight, when the day declined, In the midst of the night and deep darkness.

We may interpret `obeer as appos.: juvenem amentem, ambulantem, or as the predicate accus.: vidi juvenem...ambulantem; for that one may so express himself in Hebrew (cf. e.g., Isa 6:1; Dan 8:7), Hitzig unwarrantably denies. The passing over of the part. into the finite, 8b, is like Prov 2:14,17, and that of the inf. 1:27; 2:8. shuwq , Arab. suk (dimin. suweika, to separate, from sikkat, street, alley), still means, as in former times, a broad street, a principal street, as well as an open place, a marketplace where business is transacted, or according to its etymon: where cattle are driven for sale. On the street he went backwards and forwards, yet so that he kept near to her corner (i.e., of the woman whom he waited for), i.e., he never withdrew himself far from the corner of her house, and always again returned to it. The corner is named, because from that place he could always cast a look over the front of the house to see whether she whom he waited for showed herself. Regarding pinaah for pinaataah , vid., at Ps 27:5: a primary form peen has never been in use; piniym, Zech 14:10, is plur. of pinaah . 'eetsel (from 'aatsal , Arab. wasl, to bind) is, as a substantive, the side (as the place where one thing connects itself with another), and thus as a preposition it means (like juxta from jungere) beside, Ital. allato. w|derek| is the object. accus., for thus are construed verbs eundi (e.g., Hab. 3:12, Num. 30:17, cf. Prov 21:22).

Verse 9. The designations of time give the impression of progress to a climax; for Hitzig unwarrantably denies that neshep means the twilight; the Talmud, Berachoth 3b, correctly distinguishes nshpy try two twilights, the evening and the morning twilight. But the idea is not limited to this narrow sense, and does not need this, since the root-word naashap (vid., at Isa 40:24) permits the extension of the idea to the whole of the cool half (evening and night) of the entire day; cf. the parallel of the adulterer who veils himself by the darkness of the night and by a mask on his countenance, Job 24:15 with Jer 13:16. However, the first group of synonyms, yowm b|e`reb b|neshep (with the Cod.

Frankf. 1294, to be thus punctuated), as against the second, appears to denote an earlier period of the second half of the day; for if one reads, with Hitzig, yowm ba`arob (after Judg 19:9), the meaning remains the same as with yowm b|`ereb , viz., advesperascente die (Jerome), for `aarab = Arab. gharab, means to go away, and particularly to go under, of the sun, and thus to become evening.

He saw the youth in the twilight, as the day had declined (ke'kliken , Luke 24:29), going backwards and forwards; and when the darkness of night had reached its middle, or its highest point, he was still in his lurkingplace. lay|laah 'iyshown , apple of the eye of the night, is, like the Pers. dili scheb, heart of the night, the poetic designation of the middle of the night. Gusset incorrectly: crepusculum in quo sicut in oculi pupilla est nigredo sublustris et quasi mistura lucis ac tenebrarum. 'yshwn is, as elsewhere lb , particularly the middle; the application to the night was specially suitable, since the apple of the eye is the black part in the white of the eye (Hitzig). It is to be translated according to the accus., in pupilla noctis et caligine (not caliginis); and this was probably the meaning of the poet, for a b is obviously to be supplied to wa'apeelaah .

PROVERBS. 7:10-11

And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

Finally, the young man devoid of understanding sees his waiting rewarded: like meets like. 10 And, lo, a woman coming to meet him, In the attire of an harlot and of subtle heart. 11 Boisterous is she, and ungovernable; Her feet have no rest in her own house. 12 At one time before her door, at another in the street, And again at every corner she places herself on the watch. "V. 12 (Hitzig) expresses what is wont to be, instead of a single event, v. 11, viz., the custom of a street harlot. But she who is spoken of is not such an one; lurking is not applicable to her (cf. Job 31:9), and, v. 11, it is not meant that she is thus inclined." But Hitzig's rendering of v. 11, "she was boisterous...in her house her feet had no rest," is inaccurate, since neither w|hiy' nor shaak|nuw is used. Thus in vv. 11 and the poet gives a characteristic of the woman, introduced by w|hineeh into the frame of his picture, which goes beyond that which then presented itself to his eyes. We must with v. 12 reject also v. 11; and even that would not be a radical improvement, since that characteristic lying behind the evident, that which was then evident begins with leeb uwn|tsurat (and subtle in heart). We must thus suppose that the woman was not unknown to the observer here describing her.

He describes her first as she then appeared. shiyt Hitzig regards as equivalent to sh|wiyt , similitude (from shaawaah ), and why?

Because shiyt does not mean "to lay against," but "to place." But Ex 33:4 shows the contrary, and justifies the meaning attire, which the word also has in Ps 73:6. Meîri less suitably compares 2 Kings 9:30, but rightly explains tqwn (dressing, ornament), and remarks that shyt elliptical is equivalent to b|shiyt. It is not the nominative (Bertheau), but the accusative, as tbnyt, Ps 144:12, Ewald, §279d. How Hitzig reaches the translation of lb wntsrt by "and an arrow in her heart" (et saucia corde (Note: Virgil's Aenid, iv. 1.)), one can only understand by reading his commentary. The usage of the language, Prov 4:23, he remarks, among other things, would stamp her as a virtuous person. As if a phrase like leeb naatsar could be used both sensu bono and sensu malo! One can guard his heart when he protects it carefully against moral danger, or also when he purposely conceals that which is in it.

The part. naatsuwr signifies, Isa 1:8, besieged (blockaded), Ezek 16:12, protected, guarded, and Isa 48:6; 65:4, concealed, hidden. Ewald, §187b, refers these three significations in the two passages in Isaiah and in the passage before us to tsaarar , Niph. naatsor (as naagol); but (1) one would then more surely take tsuwr (cf. nimowl , n|bukiym ) as the verbal stem; (2) one reaches the idea of the concealed (the hidden) easier from that of the preserved than from that of the confined. As one says in Lat. homo occultus, tectus, abstrusus, in the sense of krupsi'nous, so it is said of that woman lb ntsurt , not so much in the sense of retenta cor, h.e. quae quod in corde haberet non pandebat, Fr. retenue (Cocc.), as in the sense of custodita cor, quae intentionem cordis mentemque suam callide novit premere (Mich.): she is of a hidden mind, of a concealed nature; for she feigns fidelity to her husband and flatters her paramours as her only beloved, while in truth she loves none, and each of them is to her only a means to an end, viz., to the indulgence of her worldly sensual desire.

For, as the author further describes here, she is homiyaah (frem. of homeh = homay, as Prov 1:21; Isa 22:2), tumultuosa, externally as internally impetuous, because full of intermingling lust and deceit (opp. heesu'chios , 1 Peter 3:4; 1 Tim 2:11), and coraaret , self-willed, not minding the law of duty, of discretion, or of modesty (from caarar , Arab. sharr, pervicacem, malum esse). She is the very opposite of the noiseless activity and the gentle modesty of a true house-wife, rude, stubborn, and also vagrant like a beast in its season (Hos 4:14): in domo ipsius residere nequeunt pedes ejus; thus not oikouro's or oikourgo's (Titus 2:5), far removed from the genuine woman-like ei'soo hee'suchon me'nein do'moon (Note: Eurip. Herac.) a radt, as they call such a one in Arab. (Wünsche on Hos 12:1), or as she is called in Aram. baaraa' naap|qat.

PROVERBS. 7:12

Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

This verse shows how she conducts herself when she wanders abroad. It is no common street-walker who is designated (no "Husterin," Arab. kahbt, after which also the female demon-name (Arab.) se'alâ is explained), but that licentious married wife, who, no better than such a strumpet when she wanders abroad, hunts after lovers. The alternating pa`am (properly a stroke) Fleischer compares with the Arab. synonyms, marrt, a going over, karrt, a going back, una volta, una fiata, une fois (Orelli, Synon. der Zeit und Ewigkeit, p. 51). Regarding chuwts , vid., at Prov 5:16: it is the free space without, before the house-door, or also before the gate of the city; the parallelism speaks here and at 1:20 more in favour of the former signification.

PROVERBS. 7:13

So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, After this digression the poet returns to the subject, and further describes the event as observed by himself. And she laid hold on him and kissed him; Put on a bold brow and said to him.

The verb naashaq is here, after its primary signification, connected with the dat.: osculum fixit ei. Thus also Gen 27:26 is construed, and the Dagesh in low is, as there, Dag. forte conj., after the law for which the national grammarians have coined the technical name mrchyq 'ty (veniens e longinquo, "coming out of the distance," i.e., the attraction of a word following by one accented on the penult.). The penult.-accenting of naash|qaah is the consequence of the retrogression of the accent ('chwr ncwg), which, here where the word from the first had the penult, only with Metheg, and thus with a half a tone, brings with it the dageshing of the lw following, as the original penultima-accenting of w|hecheziyqaah does of the bw which follows it, for the reading bow by Löwenstein is contrary to the laws of punctuation of the Textus receptus under consideration here. (Note: Vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 29f., and Psalmen-Commentar under Ps 52:5.)

As bw and lw have received the doubling Dagesh, so on the other hand, according to Ewald, §193b, it has disappeared from hee`eezaah (written with Raphe according to Kimchi, Michlol 145a). And as nshqh has the tone thrown back, so the proper pausal wato'mar is accented on the ult., but without attracting the lw following by dageshing, which is the case only when the first of the two words terminates in the sound of aa (aah). pnyw hee`eez is said of one who shows firmness of hardness of countenance (Arab. slabt alwajh), i.e., one who shows shamelessness, or, as we say, an iron forehead (Fl.).

PROVERBS. 7:14-15

I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

She laid hold on him and kissed him, both of which actions were shameless, and then, assuming the passivity and modesty befitting the woman, and disregarding morality and the law, she said to the youth: 14 "To bring peace-offerings was binding upon me, To-day have I redeemed my vows. 15 Therefore am I come out to meet thee, To seek thy face, and have found thee." We have translated sh|laamiym zib|cheey "peace-offerings," proceeding on the principle that shelem (sing. only Amos 5:22, and on the Phoenician altar at Marseilles) denotes contracting friendship with one (from shaalam , to hold friendly relationship), and then the gifts having this in view; for the idea of this kind of offering is the attestation and confirmation of communion with God. But in view of the derivatives shal|moniym and shiluwm , it is perhaps more appropriate to combine shelem with shileem , to discharge perfectly, and to translate it thank-payment-offering, or with v. Hofmann, a due-offering, where not directly thank-offering; for the proper eucharistic offering, which is the expression of thanks on a particular occasion, is removed from the species of the Shelamim by the addition of the words `al-towdaah (Lev 7:12-25).

The characteristic of the Shelamim is the division of the flesh of the sacrifice between Jahve and His priests on the one side, and the person (or persons) bringing it on the other side: only one part of the flesh of the sacrifice was Jahve's, consumed by fire (Lev 3:16); the priests received one part; those who brought the offering received back another part as it were from the altar of God, that they might eat it with holy joy along with their household. So here the adulteress says that there was binding upon her, in consequence of a vow she had taken, the duty of presenting peaceofferings, or offerings that were due; to-day (she reckons the day in the sense of the dies civilis from night to night) she has performed her duties, and the neder shal|meey have yielded much to her that she might therewith regale him, her true lover; for with `al-keen she means to say that even the prospect of the gay festival which she can prepare for him moved her thus to meet him. This address of the woman affords us a glimpse into the history of the customs of those times. The Shelamim meals degenerated in the same manner as our Kirmsen. (Note: Kirmse = anniversary of the dedication of a church, village fête.)

Secularization lies doubly near to merrymaking when the law sanctions this, and it can conceal itself behind the mask of piety. Regarding shichar , a more exact word for biqeesh , vid., at Prov 1:28. To seek the countenance of one is equivalent to to seek his person, himself, but yet not without reference to the wished-for look \aspectus of the person.

PROVERBS. 7:16-18

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

Thus she found him, and described to him the enjoyment which awaited him in eating and drinking, then in the pleasures of love. 16 "My bed have I spread with cushions, Variegated coverlets, Egyptian linen; 17 I have sprinkled my couch With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come then, we will intoxicate ourselves with love till the morning, And will satisfy ourselves in love." The noun `eres , from `aaras, = Arab. 'arash, aedificare, fabricari, signifies generally the wooden frame; thus not so much the bed within as the erected bed-place (cf. Arab. 'arsh, throne, and 'arysh, arbour). This bedstead she had richly and beautifully cushioned, that it might be soft and agreeable. raabad , from rb , signifies to lay on or apply closely, thus either vincire (whence the name of the necklace, Gen 41:42) or sternere (different from raapad , Job 17:13, which acquires the meaning sternere from the root-meaning to raise up from under, sublevare), whence mar|badiym , cushions, pillows, stragulae. Böttcher punctuates mar|badiym incorrectly; the b remains aspirated, and the connection of the syllables is looser than in mar|beh , Ewald, §88d.

The chaTubowt beginning the second half-verse is in no case an adjective to mrbdym, in every case only appos., probably an independent conception; not derived from chaaTab (cogn. chaatsab ), to hew wood (whence Arab. htab, fire-wood), according to which Kimchi, and with him the Graec. Venet. (perixu'stois), understands it of the carefully polished bed-poles or bed-boards, but from chaaTab = Arab. khateba, to be streaked, of diverse colours (vid., under Ps 144:12), whence the Syriac machtabto, a figured (striped, checkered) garment.

Hitzig finds the idea of coloured or variegated here unsuitable, but without justice; for the pleasantness of a bed is augmented not only by its softness, but also by the impression which its costliness makes on the eye. The following mits|rayim 'eeTuwn stands in an appositional relation to chTbwt, as when one says in Arabic taub-un dîbâg'-un, a garment brocade = of brocade. 'eeTuwn (after the Syr. for 'eTuwn , as 'eemuwn ) signifies in the Targum the cord (e.g., Jer 38:6), like the Arab. tunub, Syr. (e.g., Isa 54:2) tûnob; the root is En, not in the sense of to bind, to wind (Deitr.), but in the sense of to stretch; the thread or cord is named from the extension in regard to length, and 'Twn is thus thread-work, whether in weaving or spinning. (Note: Hence perhaps the Greek otho'nee , which Fick in his Vergl. Wörterbuch connects with the Arab. verb-root vadh, to bind, wind, clothe, but not without making thereto interrogation marks.)

The fame of Egyptian manufactures is still expressed in the Spanish aclabtea, fine linen cloth, which is equivalent to the modern Arabic elkobtîje (kibtije); they had there particularly also an intimate acquaintance with the dye stuffs found in the plants and fossils of the country (Klemm's Culturgeschichte, v. 308-310).

Verse 17-18. These verses remind us of expressions in the Canticles.

There, at Prov 4:14, are found the three names for spicery as here, and one sees that 'hlym mr are not to be connected genitively: there are three things, accented as in the title-verse 1:3. The myrrh, mor (Balsamodendron myrrha), belongs, like the frankincense, to the species of the Amyris, which is an exotic in Palestine not less than with us; the aromatic quality in them does not arise from the flowers or leaves, so that Song 1:13 leads us to think of a bunch of myrrh, but from the resin oozing through the bark (Gummi myrrhae or merely myrrha), consisting of bright glossy red or golden-yellow grains more or less transparent. 'ahaaliym (used by Balaam, Num 24:6) is the Semitic Old-Indian name of the aloë, agaru or aguru; the aromatic quality is in the wood of the Aquilaria agallocha, especially its root (agallochum or lignum aloes) dried in the earth-in more modern use and commerce the inspissated juice of its leaves. qinaamown is kinna'moomon (like mor , a Semitic word (Note: Myrrh has its name mor from the bitterness of its taste, and qaanam appears to be a secondary formation from qaanaah , whence qaaneh , reed; cf. the names of the cinnamon, cannella, Fr. cannelle. Cinnamum (ki'nnamon) is only a shorter from for cinnamomum. Pliny, Hist. Nat. xii. 19 (42), uses both forms indiscriminately.) that had come to the Greeks through the Phoenicians), the cinnamon, i.e., the inner rind of the Laurus cinnamomum. The myrrh is native to Arabia; the aloë, as its name denotes, is Indian; the cinnamon in like manner came through Indian travellers from the east coast of Africa and Ceylon (Taprobane).

All these three spices are drugs, i.e., are dry apothecaries' wares; but we are not on that account to conclude that she perfumed (Hitzig) her bed with spices, viz., burnt in a censer, an operation which, according to Song 3:6, would rather be designated qiTar|tiy. The verb nuwp (only here as Kal) signifies to lift oneself up (vid., under Ps 48:13), and transitively to raise and swing hither and thither (= heeniyp ); here with a double accusative, to besprinkle anything out of a vessel moved hither and thither.

According to this sense, we must think of the three aromas as essences in the state of solution; cf. Ex 30:22-33; Est 2:12. Hitzig's question, "Who would sprinkle bed-sheets with perfumed and thus impure water?" betrays little knowledge of the means by which even at the present day clean linen is made fragrant. The expression dowdiym raawaah sounds like dwdym shaakar, Song 5:1, although there dwdym is probably the voc., and not, as here, the accus.; raawaah is the Kal of riuwaah, Prov 5:19, and signifies to drink something copiously in full draughts. The verbal form `aalac for `aalats is found besides only in Job 20:18; 39:13; the Hithpa. signifies to enjoy oneself greatly, perhaps (since the Hithpa. is sometimes used reciprocally, vid., under Gen 2:25) with the idea of reciprocity (Targ. l|chad chad). We read boohabim with Chateph- Kametz after Ben-Asher (vid., Kimchi's Lex.); the punctuation baa'ahaabiym is that of Ben-Naphtali.

PROVERBS. 7:19-20

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

The adulteress now deprives the youth of all fear; the circumstances under which her invitation is given are as favourable as possible. 19 "For the man is not at home, He has gone on a long journey. 20 He has taken the purse with him:

He will not return home till the day of the full moon." It is true that the article stands in haa'iysh , Arab. alm'ar-fat, i.e., serves to define the word: the man, to whom here kat' exochee'n and alone reference can be made, viz., the husband of the adulteress (Fl.); but on the other side it is characteristic that she does not say 'iyshiy (as e.g., Gen 29:32), but ignores the relation of love and duty in which she is placed to him, and speaks of him as one standing at a distance from her (Aben-Ezra). Erroneously Vogel reads babayit after the Targ. instead of b|beeytow . We say in Hebr. bbytw 'ynw, il n'est pas chez soi, as we say b|yaadow laaqach , il a pris avec soi (cf. Jer 38:10). meeraachowq Hitzig seeks to connect with the verb, which, after Isa 17:13; 22:3, is possible; for the Hebr. mrchwq (mimer|chaaq ), far off, has frequently the meaning from afar, for the measure of length is determined not from the point of departure outward, but from the end, as e.g., Homer, Il. ii. 456; he'kathen de' te fai'netai augee' , from afar the gleam is seen, i.e., shines hither from the distance.

Similarly we say in French, il vient du cote du nord, he comes from the north, as well as il va du cote du nord, he goes northwards. But as we do not say: he has gone on a journey far off, but: on a distant journey, so here mrchwq is virtually an adj. (vid., under Isa 5:26) equivalent to r|chowqaah (Num 9:10): a journey which is distant = such as from it he has a long way back. Michaelis has well remarked here: ut timorem ei penitus adimat, veluti per gradus incedit. He has undertaken a journey to a remote point, but yet more: he has taken money with him, has thus business to detain him; and still further: he has even determined the distant time of his return. ts|rowr-hakecep (thus to be written after Ben-Asher, vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 41) is the purse (from tsaarar , to bind together), not one of many, but that which is his own. The terminus precedes 20b to emphasize the lateness; vid., on kece' under Ps 81:4.

Graec. Venet. tee' heeme'ra tou' kairou' , after Kimchi and others, who derive kc' (kch ) from the root kc, to reckon, and regard it as denoting only a definite time. But the two passages require a special idea; and the Syr. kêso, which in 1 Kings 12:32; 2 Chron 7:10, designates the time from the 15th day of the month, shows that the word denotes not, according to the Talmud, the new moon (or the new year's day), when the moon's disk begins to cover itself, i.e., to fill (ytkch), but the full moon, when it is covered, i.e., filled; so that thus the time of the night-scene here described is not that of the last quarter of the moon (Ewald), in which it rises at midnight, but that of the new moon (Hitzig), when the night is without moonlight. Since the derivation of the word from kc' (kch ), to cover, gives the satisfactory idea of the covering or filling of the moon's disk, we do not seek after any other; Dietrich fixes on the root-idea of roundness, and Hitzig of vision (kc' = ckh, skh , vid., on the contrary, under Ps 143:9). The l is that of time at which, in which, about which, anything is done; it is more indefinite than b| would be. He will not return for some fourteen days.

PROVERBS. 7:21

With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

The result:- 21 She beguiled him by the fulness of her talking, By the smoothness of her lips she drew him away.

Here is a climax. First she brought him to yield, overcoming the resistance of his mind to the last point (cf. 1 Kings 11:3); then drove him, or, as we say, hurried him wholly away, viz., from the right path or conduct (cf.

Deut 13:6,11). With hiTatuw (= hiTat|huw ) as the chief factum, the past imperf. is interchanged, 21b. Regarding leqach , see above, p. 40. Here is the rhetoric of sin (Zöckler); and perhaps the lqch of 20a has suggested this antiphrastic leqach to the author (Hitzig), as cheeleq (the inverted leqach , formed like sheepel , which is the abstr. of shaapaal as that is of chaalaaq ) and tadiychenuw are reciprocally conditioned, for the idea of the slippery (Ps 73:18) connects itself with chlq .

PROVERBS 7:22,23 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; What followed:- 22 So he goes after her at once As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house, And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fetters, 23 As a bird hastens to the net, Without knowing that his life is at stake- Till the arrow pierces his liver.

The part. howleek| (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool's going after her. pit|'om (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a kepfoothei's, as the LXX translates, i.e., as we say, a simpleton who has gone on the lime-twig. He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter-house, unconscious that he is going thither to be slaughtered; the LXX ungrammatically destroying the attributive clause: hoo'sper de' bou's epi' sfagee'n a'getai. The difficulties in uwk|`ekec (thus punctuated, after Kimchi, with a double Segol, and not wk`eekc , as is frequently the case) multiply, and it is not to be reconciled with the traditional text.

The ox appears to require another beast as a side-piece; and accordingly the LXX, Syr., and Targ. find in `kc a dog (to which from 'wyl they also pick out 'ayaal , a stag), Jerome a lamb (et quasi agnus kebes ), Rashi a venomous serpent (perhaps after e'chis?), Löwenstein and Malbim a rattlesnake (m|tsal|tseel nchsh after `ikeec); but all this is mere conjecture.

Symmachus' skirtoo'n (epi' desmoo'n a'froon ) is without support, and, like the favourite rendering of Schelling, et sicut saliens in vinculum cervus ('yl ), is unsuitable on account of the unsemitic position of the words. The noun `ekec , plur. `akaaciym, signifies, Isa 3:18, an anklet as a female ornament (whence v. 16 the denom. `ikeec, to make a tinkling of the anklets). In itself the word only means the fetter, compes, from `aakac , Arab. 'akas, 'akash, contrahere, constringere (vid., Fleischer under Isa 59:5); and that it can also be used of any kind of means of checking free movement, the Arab. 'ikâs, as the name of a cord with which the camel is made fast by the head and forefeet, shows.

With this signification the interpretation is: et velut pedicâ (= wkb`kc) implicatus ad castigationem stulti, he follows her as if (bound) with a fetter to the punishment of the fool, i.e., of himself (Michaelis, Fleischer, and others). Otherwise Luther, who first translated "in a fetter," but afterwards (supplying l|, not b|): "and as if to fetters, where one corrects fools." But the ellipsis is harsh, and the parallelism leads us to expect a living being in the place of `kc. Now since, according to Gesenius, `kc, fetter, can be equivalent to a fettered one neither at Isa 17:5; 21:17, nor Prov 23:28 (according to which `kc must at least have an active personal signification), we transpose the nouns of the clause and write `ekec 'el-muwcar w|ke'ewiyl, he follows her as a fool (Psychol. p. 292) to correction (restraint) with fetters; or if 'wyl is to be understood not so much physically as morally, and refers to self-destroying conduct (Ps 107:7): as a madman, i.e., a criminal, to chains. The one figure denotes the fate into which he rushes, like a beast devoid of reason, as the loss of life; and the other denotes the fate to which he permits himself to be led by that woman, like a criminal by the officer, as the loss of freedom and of honour.

Verse 23. The confusion into which the text has fallen is continued in this verse. For the figure of the deadly arrow connects itself neither with that of the ox which goes to the slaughter-house, nor with that of the madman who is put in chains: the former is not killed by being shot; and with the latter, the object is to render him harmless, not to put him to death. The LXX therefore converts 'wyl into 'yl , a stag, and connects the shooting with an arrow with this: ee' hoos e'lafos toxeu'mati pepleegoo's eis to' hee'par. But we need no encroachment on the text itself, only a correct placing of its members. The three thoughts, v. 23, reach a right conclusion and issue, if with 'el-paach tsipowr k|maheer (here Merchamahpach) a new departure is begun with a comparison: he follows her with eager desires, like as a bird hastens to the snare (vid., regarding pch, a snare, and mowqeesh , a noose, under Isa 8:15).

What then follows is a continuation of 22a. The subject is again the youth, whose way is compared to that of an ox going to the slaughter, of a culprit in chains, and of a fool; and he knows not (non novit, as Prov 4:19; 9:18, and according to the sense, non curat, 3:6; 5:6) that it is done at the risk of his life (b|nap|show as 1 Kings 2:23; Num 17:3), that his life is the price with which this kind of love is bought (huw' , neut., as not merely Eccl 2:1 and the like, but also e.g., Lev 10:3; Est 9:1)-that does not concern him till (`ad = 'shr `d or ky `d ) the arrow breaks or pierces through (pileeach as Job 16:13) his liver, i.e., till he receives the death-wound, from which, if not immediately, yet at length he certainly dies. Elsewhere the part of the body struck with a deadly wound is called the reins or loins (Job, etc.), or the gall-bladder (Job 20:25); here the liver, which is called kaabeed , Arab. kebid, perhaps as the organ in which sorrowful and painful affections make themselves felt (cf. Aeschylus, Agam. 801: dee'gma lu'pees ef' hee'par prosiknei'tai), especially the latter, because the passion of sensual love, according to the idea of the ancients, reflected itself in the liver.

He who is love-sick has jecur ulcerosum (Horace, Od. i. 25. 15); he is diseased in his liver (Psychol. p. 268). But the arrow is not here the arrow of love which makes love-sick, but the arrow of death, which slays him who is ensnared in sinful love. The befooled youth continues the disreputable relation into which he has entered till it terminates in adultery and in lingering disease upon his body, remorse in his soul, and dishonour to his name, speedily ending in inevitable ruin both spiritually and temporally.

PROVERBS. 7:24-25

Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

With w|`ataah , as at Prov 5:7, the author now brings his narrative to a close, adding the exhortation deduced from it: 24 And now, ye children, give ear unto me, And observe the words of my mouth! 25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways, And stray not in her paths.

The verb saaTaah (whence jeest, like jeet, Prov 4:15, with long ee from i) the author uses also of departure from a wicked way (4:15); but here, where the portraiture of a faithless wife (a cowTaah) is presented, the word used in the law of jealousy, Num 5, for the trespass of an 'ysh 'sht is specially appropriate. shTh is interchanged with taa`aah (cf. Gen 21:14): wander not on her paths, which would be the consequence of straying on them. Theodotion: kai' mee' planeethee's en atrapoi's autee's, with kai' , as also Syr., Targ., and Jerome. The Masora reckons this verse to the 25 which have 'l at the beginning and w'l at the middle of each clause (vid., Baer in the Luth. Zeitschrift, 1865, p. 587); the text of Norzi has therefore correctly w|'al , which is found also in good MSS (e.g., the Erfurt, 2 and 3).

PROVERBS 7:26,27 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

The admonition, having its motive in that which goes before, is now founded on the emphatic finale: 26 For many are the slain whom she hath caused to fall, And many are her slain. 27 A multiplicity of ways to help is her house, Going down to the chambers of death.

The translation "for many slain has she laid low" (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther) is also syntactically possible; for rabiym can be placed before its substantive after the manner of the demonstratives and numerals (e.g., Neh 9:28, cf. 'chd , Song 4:9), and the accentuation which requires two servants (the usual two Munachs) to the Athnach appears indeed thus to construe it. It is otherwise if rbym here meant magni (thus e.g., Ralbag, and recently Bertheau), and not multi; but rbym and `atsumiym stand elsewhere in connection with each other in the signification many and numerous, Ps 35:18; Joel 2:2; Mic 4:3. "Her slain" are those slain by her; the part. pass. is connected with the genitive of the actor, e.g., Prov 9:18; cf. (Arab.) katyl âlmhabbt, of one whom love kills (Fl.). With v. 27 cf. 2:18; 9:18. In 27a, beeytaah is not equivalent to bbyth after 8:2, also not elliptical and equivalent to byth drky ; the former is unnecessary, the latter is in no case established by Ps 45:7; Ezra 10:13, nor by Deut 8:15; 2 Kings 23:17 (see, on the other hand, Philippi's Status Constructus, pp. 87-93).

Rightly Hitzig has: her house forms a multiplicity of ways to hell, in so far as adultery leads by a diversity of ways to hell. Similarly the subject and the predicate vary in number, Prov 16:25; Ps 110:3; Job 26:13; Dan 9:23, and frequently. If one is once in her house, he may go in this or in that way, but surely his path is to destruction: it consists of many steps to hell, such as lead down (krk, fem. Isa 37:34, masc. Isa 30:21) to the extreme depths of death (cf. Job 9:9, "chambers of the south" = its remotest regions veiling themselves in the invisible); for cheder (Arab. khiddr) is the part of the tent or the house removed farthest back, and the most private (Fl.). These chad|reey-maawet, cf. sh|'owl `im|qeey , Prov 9:18, approach to the conception of geeychinom, which is afterwards distinguished from s'wl.

FOURTEENTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, A Discourse of Wisdom concerning Her Excellence and Her Gifts PROVERBS 8:1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

The author has now almost exhausted the ethical material; for in this introduction to the Solomonic Book of Proverbs he works it into a memorial for youth, so that it is time to think of concluding the circle by bending back the end to the beginning. For as in the beginning, Prov 1:20ff., so also here in the end, he introduces Wisdom herself as speaking. There, her won testimony is delivered in contrast to the alluring voice of the deceiver; here, the daughter of Heaven in the highways inviting to come to her, is the contrast to the adulteress lurking in the streets, who is indeed not a personification, but a woman of flesh and blood, but yet at the same time as the incarnate apa'tee of worldly lust. He places opposite to her Wisdom, whose person is indeed not so sensibly perceptible, but who is nevertheless as real, coming near to men in a human way, and seeking to win them by her gifts. 1 Doth not Wisdom discourse, And Understanding cause her voice to be heard? 2 On the top of the high places in the way, In the midst of the way, she has placed herself. 3 By the side of the gates, at the exit of the city, At the entrance to the doors, she calleth aloud.

As chineeh points to that which is matter of fact, so chalo' calls to a consideration of it (cf. Prov 14:22); the question before the reader is doubly justified with reference to 1:20ff. With chkmh, tbwnh is interchanged, as e.g., 2:1-6; such names of wisdom are related to its principal name almost as 'lhym, `lywn , and the like, to yhwh . In describing the scene, the author, as usual, heaps up synonyms which touch one another without coming together.

PROVERBS. 8:2

She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.

By m|romiym Hitzig understands the summit of a mountain, and therefore regards this verse as an interpolation; but the "high places" are to be understood of the high-lying parts of the city. There, on the way which leads up and down, she takes her stand. `aleey = Arab. 'ly, old and poetic for `al , signifies here "hard by, close to," properly, so that something stands forward over the edge of a thing, or, as it were, passes over its borders (Fl.). The beeyt , Hitzig, as Bertheau, with LXX, Targ., Jerome, interpret prepositionally as a strengthening of beeyn (in the midst); but where it once, Ezek 1:27, occurs in this sense, it is fully written l| beeyt . Here it is the accus. loci of the substantive; "house of the ascent" (Syr. bêth urchotho) is the place where several ways meet, the uniting point, as hdrk 'eem (Ezek 21:26), the point of departure, exit; the former the crossway, as the latter the separating way.

Thus Immanuel: the place of the frequented streets; Meîri: the place of the ramification (more correctly, the concentration) of the ways. nitsaabaah signifies more than qaamaah (she raises herself) and aa`m|daah (she goes thither); it means that she plants herself there.

PROVERBS. 8:3

She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.

In this verse Bertheau finds, not inappropriately, the designations of place: on this side, on that side, and within the gate. l|yad , at the hand, is equivalent to at the side, as Ps 140:6. l|piy , of the town, is the same as l|petach , Prov 9:14, of the house: at the mouth, i.e., at the entrance of the city, thus where they go out and in. There are several of these ways for leaving and entering a city, and on this account p|taachiym m|bow' are connected: generally where one goes out and in through one of the gates (doors). maabow' , fully represented by the French avenue, the space or way which leads to anything (Fl.). There she raises her voice, which sounds out far and wide; vid., concerning taaronaah (Graec. Venet. incorrectly, after Rashi, alala'xousi), at 1:20.

PROVERBS. 8:4-9

Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

Now begins the discourse. The exordium summons general attention to it with the emphasis of its absolute truth: 4 "To you, ye men, is my discourse addressed, And my call is to the children of men! 5 Apprehend, O ye simple ones, what wisdom is; And, ye fools what understanding is. 6 Hear, for I will speak princely things, And the opening of my lips is upright. 7 For my mouth uttereth truth, And a wicked thing is an abomination to my lips. 8 The utterances of my mouth are in rectitude, There is nothing crooked or perverse in them. 9 To the men of understanding they are all to the point, And plain to those who have attained knowledge." Hitzig rejects this section, 4-12, as he does several others in 8 and 9, as spurious. But if this preamble, which reminds us of Elihu, is not according to every one's taste, yet in respect of the circle of conception and thought, as well as of the varying development of certain fundamental thoughts, it is altogether after the manner of the poet. The terminology is one that is strange to us; the translation of it is therefore difficult; that which is given above strives at least not to be so bad as to bring discredit on the poet. The tautology and flatness of v. 4 disappears when one understands 'iyshiym and 'aadaam b|neey like the Attic a'ndres and a'nthroopoi ; vid., under Isa 2:9; 53:3 (where 'iyshiym , as here and Ps 141:4, is equivalent to 'iysh b|neey , Ps 49:3; 4:3).

Wisdom turns herself with her discourses to high and low, to persons of standing and to the proletariat. The verbal clause 4a interchanges with a noun clause 4b, as frequently a preposition with its noun (e.g., v. 8a) completes the whole predicate of a semistich (Fl.).

Verse 5. Regarding 'aar|maah , calliditas, in a good sense, vid., at Prov 1:4; regarding p|taa'yim , those who are easily susceptible of good or bad, according to the influence that is brought to bear upon them, vid., also 1:4; and regarding k|ciyliym , the intellectually heavy, dull persons in whom the flesh burdens the mind, vid., at 1:22. leeb is parallel with `rmh, for the heart (according to its Semitic etymon, that which remains fast, like a kernel, the central-point) is used for the understanding of which it is the seat (Psychol. p. 249), or heartedness = intelligence (cf. chcr-lb, 6:32 = a'nous or a'logos ). We take `rmh and lb as objective, as we have translated: that which is in both, and in which they consist. Thus haabiyn , which is a favourite word with this author, has both times the simple transitive meaning of the gain of understanding into the nature and worth of both; and we neither need to interpret the second haabiynuw in the double transitive meaning, "to bring to understanding," nor, with Hitzig, to change in into haakiynuw (Note: Vid., the Hebr. Zeitschrift, hchlwts, 1856, p. 112.) direct, i.e., applicate.

Verse 6. That to which Wisdom invites, her discourse makes practicable, for she speaks of n|giydiym . Hitzig interprets this word by conspicua, manifest truths, which the Graev. Venet. understands to be enanti'a , after Kimchi's interpretation: truths which one makes an aim and object (neged ) on account of their worth. Fürst, however, says that ngyd, from naagad , Arab. najad, means to be elevated, exalted, and thereby visible (whence also higiyd , to bring to light, to bring forward); and that by ngydym, as the plur. of this ngyd, is to be understood princeps in the sense of principalia, or praestantia (LXX semna' ; Theodot. heegemonika' ; Jerome, de rebus magnis) (cf. no'mos basiliko's of the law of love, which surpasses the other laws, as kings do their subjects), which is supported by the similar expression, Prov 22:20.

But that we do not need to interpret ngydym as abstr., like meeyshaariym , and as the acc. adverb.: in noble ways, because in that case it ought to be ngydwt (Berth.), is shown by Prov 22:20, and also 16:13; cf. on this neuter use of the masc., Ewald, §172a. "The opening of my lips (i.e., this, that they open themselves, not: that which they disclose, lay open) is upright" is to be regarded as metonymia antecedentis pro conseq.: that which I announce is...; or also as a poetic attribution, which attributes to a subject that which is produced by it (cf. 3:17b): my discourse bearing itself right, brings to light (Fl.). 23:16, cf. 31, is parallel both in the words and the subject; meeyshaariym , that which is in accordance with fact and with rectitude, uprightness (vid., at 1:3), is a word common to the introduction (1-9), and to the first appendix to the first series of Solomonic Proverbs (Prov 22:17-24:22), with the Canticles. In Song 5:16, also, as where (cf. Prov 5:3; Job 6:30), the word palate \Gaumen is used as the organ of speech.

Verse 7. kiy continues the reason (begun in v. 6) for the Hearken! (cf. Prov 1:15-17; 4:16f.); so that this second reason is co-ordinated with the first (Fl.). Regarding 'emet , vid., at 3:3; chaagaah, here of the palate (cf. Ps 37:30), as in 15:28 of the heart, has not hitherto occurred. It signifies quiet inward meditation, as well as also (but only poetically) discourses going forth from it (vid., at Ps 1:2). The contrary of truth, i.e., moral truth, is resha` , wickedness in words and principles-a segolate, which retains its Segol also in pausa, with the single exception of Eccl 3:16.

Verse 8-9. The b| of b|tsedeq is that of the close connection of a quality with an action or matter, which forms with a substantive adverbia as well as virtual adjectiva, as here: cum rectitudine (conjuncta i. e. vera) sunt omnia dicta oris mei (Fl.); it is the b of the distinctive attribute (Hitzig), certainly related to the b essentiae (Prov 3:26, according to which Schultens and Bertheau explain), which is connected with the abstract conception (e.g., Ps 33:4), but also admits the article designating the gender (vid., at Ps 29:4). The opposite of tsedeq (here in the sense of veracitas, which it means in Arab.) is w|`iqeesh nip|taal , dolosum ac perversum. `iqeesh (cf. Gesen. §84, 9) is that which is violently bent and twisted, i.e., estranged from the truth, which is, so to speak, parodied or caricatured.

Related to it in meaning, but proceeding from a somewhat different idea, is nptl. paatal , used primarily of threads, cords, ropes, and the like, means to twist them, to twine them over and into one another, whence paatiyl , a line or string made of several intertwisted threads (cf.

Arab. ftîlt, a wick of a candle or lamp); Niph., to be twisted, specifically luctari, of the twisting of the limbs, and figuratively to bend and twist oneself, like the crafty (versutus) liars and deceivers, of words and thoughts which do not directly go forth, but by the crafty twistings of truth and rectitude, opp. yshr , nkwn (Fl.). There is nothing of deception of error in the utterances of wisdom; much rather they are all n|kocheym , straight out from her (cf. Isa 57:2), going directly out, and without circumlocution directed to the right end for the intelligent, the knowing (cf. Neh 10:29); and y|shaariym , straight or even, giving no occasion to stumble, removing the danger of erring for those who have obtained knowledge, i.e., of good and evil, and thus the ability of distinguishing between them (Gesen. §134, 1)-briefly, for those who know how to estimate them.

PROVERBS. 8:10-11

Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.

Her self-commendation is continued in the resumed address: 10 "Receive my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold! 11 For wisdom is better than corals, And all precious jewels do not equal her. 12 I, Wisdom, inhabit prudence, And the knowledge of right counsels is attainable by me." Instead of w|lo'-kaacep influenced by q|chuw , is w|'al-kcp with tiq|chuw to be supplied; besides, with most Codd. and older editions, we are to accentuate muwcaariy q|chuw with the erasure of the Makkeph. "Such negations and prohibitions," Fleischer remarks, "are to be understood comparatively: instead of acquiring silver, rather acquire wisdom. Similar is the old Arabic 'l-nâr w-l'-'l-'âr, the fire, and not the disgrace! Also among the modern Arabic proverbs collected by Burckhardt, many have this form, e.g., No. 34, alhajamat balafas wala alhajat alanas, Better to let oneself be cut with the axe then to beg for the favour of another" 10b is to be translated, with Jerome, Kimchi, and others: and knowledge is more precious than fine gold (nib|chaar , neut.: auro pretiosius); and in view of Prov 16:16, this construction appears to be intended. But Fleischer has quite correctly affirmed that this assertatory clause is unsuitably placed as a parallel clause over against the preceding imperative clause, and, what is yet more important, that then v. 11 would repeat idem per idem in a tautological manner. We therefore, after the Aramaic and Greek translators, take nbchr kcp together here as well as at v. 19, inasmuch as we carry forward the qchw : et scientiam prae auro lectissimo, which is also according to the accentuation.

Equally pregnant is the mn in meechaaruwts of the passage 3:14-15, which is here varied.

PROVERBS. 8:12

I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.

Ver. 12 follows v. 11 = Prov 3:15 as a justification of this estimating of wisdom above all else in worth. Regarding 'aniy with Gaja, vid., the rule which the accentuation of this word in the three so-called metrical books follows in Merx' Archiv, 1868, p. 203 (cf. Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 40). We translate: ego sapientia involo sollertiam, for the verb shaakan is construed with the accusative of the object, 2:21; 10:30; 37:3 (cf. guwr , Ps 5:5), as well as with b, Gen. 26:2, Ps. 69:37. Wisdom inhabits prudence, has settled down, as it were, and taken up her residence in it, is at home in its whole sphere, and rules it. Bertheau not unsuitably compares oikoo'n with mo'nos e'choon , 1 Tim 6:16.

Regarding m|zimowt , vid., Prov 1:4; 5:2. It denotes well-considered, carefully thought out designs, plans, conclusions, and da`at is here the knowledge that is so potent. This intellectual power is nothing beyond wisdom, it is in her possession on every occasion; she strives after it not in vain, her knowledge is defined according to her wish. Wisdom describes herself here personally with regard to that which she bestows on men who receive her.

PROVERBS. 8:13

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Far remote is the idea that 13a is dependent on 'em|tsaa' (I acquire) (Löwenstein, Bertheau). With this verse begins a new series of thoughts raising themselves on the basis of the fundamental clause 13a. Wisdom says what she hates, and why she hates it: 13 "The fear of Jahve is to hate evil; Pride and arrogancy, and an evil way And a deceitful mouth, do I hate." If the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 9:10; 1:7), then wisdom, personally considered, stands before all else that is to be said of her in a relation of homage or reverence toward God corresponding to the fear of God on the part of man; and if, as the premiss 13a shows, the fear of God has as its reverse side the hatred of evil, then there arises what Wisdom says in s|nee'tiy (I hate) of herself. Instead of the n. actionis sin|'at (hatred), formed in the same way with yir|'at , which, admitting the article, becomes a substantive, the author uses, in order that he might designate the predicate as such (Hitzig), rather the n. actionis s|no't as m|lo't , Jer 29:10. q|ro't, Judg 8:1, is equivalent to s|no'et like y|boshet , the becoming dry, y|kolet , the being able; cf. (Arab.) shanat, hating, malât, well-being, karât, reading (Fl.).

The evil which Wisdom hates is now particularized as, Prov 6:16-19, the evil which Jahve hates.

The virtue of all virtues is humility; therefore Wisdom hates, above all, self-exaltation in all its forms. The paronomasia w|gaa'own gee'aah (pride and haughtiness) expresses the idea in the whole of its contents and compass (cf. Isa 15:6; 3:1, and above at 1:27). gee'aah (from gee'eh , the nominal form), that which is lofty = pride, stands with gaa'own , as Job 4:10, naaboh, that which is high = arrogance.

There follows the viam mali, representing the sins of walk, i.e., of conduct, and os fullax (vid., at Prov 2:12), the sins of the mouth. Hitzig rightly rejects the interpunctuation raa` , and prefers raa` . In consequence of this Dechî (Tiphcha init.), tah|pukot uwpiy have in Codd. and good editions the servants Asla and Illuj (vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 11); Aben-Ezra and Moses Kimchi consider the Asla erroneously as disjunctive, and explain uwpiy by et os = axioma meum, but Asla is conjunctive, and has after it the t raphatum.

PROVERBS. 8:14-16

Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.

After Wisdom has said what she hates, and thus what she is not, she now says what she is, has, and promises: 14 "Mine is counsel and promotion; I am understanding, mine is strength. 15 By me kings reign, And rulers govern justly. 16 By me princes rule, and nobles- All judges of the earth." Whoever gives anything must himself possess it; in this sense Wisdom claims for herself counsel, promotion (in the sense of offering and containing that which is essentially and truly good; vid., concerning tuwshiyaah , Prov 2:7), and energy (vid., Eccl 7:19). But she does not merely possess biynaah ; this is much rather her peculiar nature, and is one with her. That v. 14 is formed after Job 12:13,16 (Hitzig) is possible, without there following thence any argument against its genuineness. And if v. 15f., and Isa 32:1; 10:1, stand in intentional reciprocal relation, then the priority is on the side of the author of the Proverbs. The connection gives to the laconic expression its intended comprehensiveness. It is not meant that Wisdom has the highest places in the state of give, but that she makes men capable of holding and discharging the duties of these. 15b. Here we are led to think of legislation, but the usage of the language determines for the Po. choqeeq only the significations of commanding, decreeing, or judging; tsedeq is the object accus., the opposite of chiq|qeey-'aawen (decrees of unrighteousness), Isa 10:1. rozeen is a poetic word, from raazan = Arab. razuna, to be heavy, weighty, then to be firm, incapable of being shaken, figuratively of majestic repose, dignity (cf.

Arab. wqâr and kaabowd ) in the whole external habitus, in speech and action such as befits one invested with power (Fl.). 16a. We may not explain the second clause of this verse: et ad ingenua impelluntur quicunque terrae imperant, for naadiyb is adj. without such a verbal sense. But besides, ndybym is not pred., for which it is not adapted, because, with the obscuring of its ethical signification (from naadab , to impel inwardly, viz., to noble conduct, particularly to liberality), it also denotes those who are noble only with reference to birth, and not to disposition (Isa 32:8). Thus ndybym is a fourth synonym for the highly exalted, and 'rts kl-shpTy is the summary placing together of all kinds of dignity; for shaapaT unites in itself references to government, administration of justice, and rule. kl is used, and not wkl-a so-called asyndeton summativum. Instead of 'aarets (LXX) there is found also the word tsedeq (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Graec.

Venet., adopted by Norzi after Codd. and Neapol. 1487). But this word, if not derived from the conclusion of the preceding verse, is not needed by the text, and gives a summary which does not accord with that which is summed up (mlkym, rznym, srym, ndybym); besides, the Scripture elsewhere calls God Himself tsdq shwpT (Ps 9:5; Jer 11:20). The Masoretic reading (Note: If the Masoretes had read tsedeq shpTy, then would they have added the remark lyt ("it does not further occur"), and inserted the expression in their Register of Expressions, which occurs but once, Masora finalis, p. 62.) of most of the editions, which is also found in the Cod. Hillel (hlly cpr), (Note: One of the most ancient and celebrated Codd of the Heb.

Scriptures, called Hillel from the name of the man who wrote it. Vid., Streack's Prolegomena, p. 112. It was written about A.D. 600.]) merits the preference.

PROVERBS. 8:17-21

I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

The discourse of Wisdom makes a fresh departure, as at v. 13: she tells how, to those who love her, she repays this love: 17 "I love them that love me, And they that seek me early find me. 18 Riches and honour are with me, Durable riches and righteousness. 19 Better is my fruit than pure and fine gold, And my revenue (better) than choice silver. 20 In the way of righteousness do I walk, In the midst of the paths of justice. 21 To give an inheritance to them that love me And I fill their treasuries." The Chethîb 'ohabeyhaa (ego hos qui eam amant redamo), Gesenius, Lehrgeb. §196, 5, regards as a possible synallage (eam = me), but one would rather think that it ought to be read (yhwh =) h' 'ohabeey . The ancients all have the reading 'ohabay . 'eehab (= 'e'ehab , with the change of the ee into ê, and the compression of the radical ' ; cf. 'omar , tobee' , Prov 1:10) is the form of the fut. Kal, which is inflected t|'eehabuw , 1:22. Regarding shichar (the Graec. Venet. well: ohi orthri'zonte's moi), vid., 1:28, where the same epenthet. fut. form is found.

Verse 18-19. In this verse part of Prov 3:16 is repeated, after which 'itiy is meant of possession (mecum and penes me). Regarding hown , vid., 1:13; instead of the adjective yaaqaar there, we have here `aateeq . The verb `aataq signifies promoveri, to move forwards, whence are derived the meanings old (cf. aetas provecta, advanced age), venerable for age, and noble, free (cf. `atiyq , Isa 28:9, and Arab. 'atyk, manumissus), unbound, the bold. Used of clothing, `aatiyq (Isa 23:18) expresses the idea of venerable for age. `aateeq used of possessions and goods, like the Arab. 'âtak, denotes such goods as increase during long possession as an inheritance from father to son, and remain firm, and are not for the first time gained, but only need to be inherited, opes perennes et firmae (Schultens, Gesenius' Thesaur., Fleischer), although it may be also explained (which is, however, less probable with the form `aateeq ) of the idea of the venerable from opes superbae (Jerome), splendid opulence. ts|daaqaah is here also a good which is distributed, but properly the distributing goodness itself, as the Arab. tsadakat, influenced by the later use of the Hebrew tsdqh (dikaiosu'nee = eleeemosu'nee ), denotes all that which God of His goodness causes to flow to men, or which men bestow upon men (Fl.).

Righteousness is partly a recompensative goodness, which rewards, according to the law of requital, like with like; partly communicative, which, according to the law of love without merit, and even in opposition to it, bestows all that is good, and above all, itself; but giving itself to man, it assimilates him to itself (vid., Ps 24:7), so that he becomes tsdyq , and is regarded as such before God and men, v. 19.

The fruit and product of wisdom (the former a figure taken from the trees, Prov 3:18; the latter from the sowing of seed, 3:9) is the gain and profit which it yields. With chaaruwts , 8:10; 3:14, paaz is here named as the place of fine gold, briefly for muwpaaz zaahaab , solid gold, gold separated from the place of ore which contains it, or generally separated gold, from paazaz , violently to separate metals from base mixtures; Targ. 'owb|riyziyn dahabaa', gold which has stood the fire-test, obrussa, of the crucible, Greek o'bruzon, Pers. ebrîz, Arab. ibrîz. In the last clause of this verse, as also in 10b, nib|chaar is to be interpreted as pred. to t|buw'aatiy , but the balance of the meaning demands as a side-piece to the wmpz mchrwts (19a) something more than the mere kecep . In 20f. the reciprocal love is placed as the answer of love under the point of view of the requiting righteousness.

But recompensative and communicative righteousness are here combined, where therefore the subject is the requital of worthy pure love and loving conduct, like with like. Such love requires reciprocal love, not merely cordial love, but that which expresses itself outwardly.

Verse 20-21. In this sense, Wisdom says that she acts strictly according to justice and rectitude, and adds (21) wherein this her conduct manifests itself. The Piel hileek| expresses firm, constant action; and b|towk| means that she turns from this line of conduct on no side. l|han|chiyl is distinguished from b|hnchyl, as ut possidendam tribuam from possidendam tribuendo; the former denotes the direction of the activity, the latter its nature and manner; both combine if we translate ita ut.... (Note: Biesenthal combines the etymologically obscure hnchyl with naachal : to make to flow into, so that naachal denotes inheritance in contradistinction to acquisition; while nachalaah , in contradistinction to y|rushaah , denotes the inheritance rather of many than of the individual.)

Regarding the origin of yeesh , vid., at Prov 2:7; it denotes the being founded, thus substantia, and appears here, like the word in mediaeval Latin and Romanic (Ital. sustanza, Span. substancia), and like ousi'a and hu'parxis (ta' hupa'rchonta ) in classic Greek, to denote possessions and goods. But since this use of the word does not elsewhere occur (therefore Hitzig explains ysh = ly () ysh , I have it = presto est), and here, where Wisdom speaks, ysh connects itself in thought with tuwshiyaah , it will at least denote real possession (as we also are wont to call not every kind of property, but only landed property, real possession), such possession as has real worth, and that not according to commercial exchange and price, but according to sound judgment, which applies a higher than the common worldly standard of worth. The Pasek between 'hby and ysh is designed to separate the two Jods from each other, and has, as a consequence, for 'hbay lhnchyl the accentuation with Tarcha and Mercha (vid., Accentssystem, vi. §4; cf. Torath Emeth, p. 17, §3). The carrying forward of the inf. with the finite, 21b, is as 1:27; 2:2, and quite usual.

PROVERBS. 8:22

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

Wisdom takes now a new departure, in establishing her right to be heard, and to be obeyed and loved by men. As the Divine King in Ps 2 opposes to His adversaries the self-testimony: "I will speak concerning a decree!

Jahve said unto me: Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee;" so Wisdom here unfolds her divine patent of nobility: she originates with God before all creatures, and is the object of God's love and joy, as she also has the object of her love and joy on God's earth, and especially among the sons of men: "Jahve brought me forth as the beginning of His way, As the foremost of His works from of old." The old translators render qaanaaniy (with Kametz by Dechî; vid., under Ps 118:5) partly by verbs of creating (LXX e'ktise , Syr., Targ. b|raa'niy), partly by verbs of acquiring (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Venet. ektee'sato ; Jerome, possedit); Wisdom appears also as created, certainly not without reference to this passage, Sir. 1:4, prote'ra pa'ntoon e'ktistai sofi'a ; 1:9, auto's e'ktisen autee'n ; 24:8, ho kti'sas me . In the christological controversy this word gained a dogmatic signification, for they proceeded generally on the identity of sofi'a hupostatikee' (sapientia substantialis) with the hypostasis of the Son of God. The Arians used the e'ktise' me as a proof of their doctrine of the filius non genitus, sed factus, i.e., of His existence before the world began indeed, but yet not from eternity, but originating in time; while, on the contrary, the orthodox preferred the translation ektee'sato , and understood it of the coeternal existence of the Son with the Father, and agreed with the e'ktise of the LXX by referring it not to the actual existence, but to the position, place of the Son (Athanasius: Deus me creavit regem or caput operum suorum; Cyrill.: non condidit secundum substantiam, sed constituit me totius universi principium et fundamentum).

But (1) Wisdom is not God, but is God's' she has personal existence in the Logos of the N.T., but is not herself the Logos; she is the world-idea, which, once projected, is objective to God, not as a dead form, but as a living spiritual image; she is the archetype of the world, which, originating from God, stands before God, the world of the idea which forms the medium between the Godhead and the world of actual existence, the communicated spiritual power in the origination and the completion of the world as God designed it to be. This wisdom the poet here personifies; he does not speak of the person as Logos, but the further progress of the revelation points to her actual personification in the Logos. And (2) since to her the poet attributes an existence preceding the creation of the world, he thereby declares her to be eternal, for to be before the world is to be before time. For if he places her at the head of the creatures, as the first of them, so therewith he does not seek to make her a creature of this world having its commencement in time; he connects her origination with the origination of the creature only on this account, because that à priori refers and tends to the latter; the power which was before heaven and earth were, and which operated at the creation of the earth and of the heavens, cannot certainly fall under the category of the creatures around and above us.

Therefore (3) the translation with e'ktisen has nothing against it, but it is different from the kti'sis of the heavens and the earth, and the poet has intentionally written not b|raa'niy, but qnny. Certainly qnh , Arab. knâ, like all the words used of creating, refers to one rootidea: that of forging (vid., under Gen 4:22), as br' does to that of cutting (vid., under Gen 1:1); but the mark of a commencement in time does not affix itself to qnh in the same way as it does to br' , which always expresses the divine production of that which has not hitherto existed. qnh comprehends in it the meanings to create, and to create something for oneself, to prepare, parare (e.g., Ps 139:13), and to prepare something for oneself, comparare, as kti'zein and kta'sthai , both from shki, to build, the former expressed by struere, and the latter by sibi struere. In the qaanaaniy , then, there are the ideas, both that God produced wisdom, and that He made Himself to possess it; not certainly, however, as a man makes himself to possess wisdom from without, Prov 4:7.

But the idea of the bringing forth is here the nearest demanded by the connection. For dar|kow ree'shiyt is not equivalent to drkw b|r'shyt (Syr., Targ., Luther), as Jerome also reads: Ita enim scriptum est:ADONAI CANANI BRESITH DERCHO (Ep. cxl. ad Cyprian.); but it is, as Job 40:19 shows, the second accusative of the object (LXX, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion). But if God made wisdom as the beginning of His way, i.e., of His creative efficiency (cf. Rev 3:14 and Col 1:15), the making is not to be thought of as acquiring, but as a bringing forth, revealing this creative efficiency of God, having it in view; and this is also confirmed by the chwllty (genita sum; cf. Gen 4:1, qnyty , genui) following. Accordingly, mip|`aalaayw qedem (foremost of His works) has to be regarded as a parallel second object. accusative. All the old translators interpret qdm as a preposition before, but the usage of the language before us does not recognise it as such; this would be an Aramaism, for qaadaam , Dan 7:7, frequently min-qaadaam (Syr., Targ.), is so used. But as qedem signifies previous existence in space, and then in time (vid., Orelli, Zeit und Ewigkeit, p. 76), so it may be used of the object in which the previous existence appears, thus (after Sir. 1:4): prote'ran too'n e'rgoon autou' (Hitzig).

PROVERBS. 8:23

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

A designation of the When? expressed first by mee'aaz (Isa 48:8, cf. 40:21), is further unfolded: "From everlasting was I set up, From the beginning, from the foundations of the earth." That nicak|tiy cannot be translated: I was anointed = consecrated, vid., at Ps 2:6. But the translation also: I was woven = wrought (Hitzig, Ewald, and previously one of the Greeks, edia'stheen), does not commend itself, for ruqam (Ps 139:15), used of the embryo, lies far from the metaphorical sense in which naacak| = Arab. nasaj, texere, would here be translated of the origin of a person, and even of such a spiritual being as Wisdom; nocad|tiy, as the LXX reads (e'themelioose' me ), is not once used of such. Rightly Aquila, katesta'theen; Symmachus, prokechei'rismai ; Jerome, ordinata sum. Literally, but unintelligibly, the Gr. Venet. ke'chumai, according to which (cf. Sir. 1:10) Böttcher: I was poured forth = formed, but himself acknowledging that this figure is not suitable to personification; nor is it at all likely that the author applied the word, used in this sense of idols, to the origin of Wisdom. The fact is, that naacak| , used as seldom of the anointing or consecration of kings, as cuwk| , passes over, like yaatsaq (hitsiyq), tsuwq (maatsuwq , a pillar), and yaatsag (hitsiyg), from the meaning of pouring out to that of placing and appointing; the mediating idea appears to be that of the pouring forth of the metal, since ncyk|, Dan 11:8, like neecek|, signifies a molten image.

The Jewish interpreters quite correctly remark, in comparing it with the princely name naaciyk| cf. Ps 83:12 (although without etymological insight), that a placing in princely dignity is meant. Of the three synonyms of aeternitas a parte ante, mee`owlaam points backwards into the infinite distance, meero'sh into the beginning of the world, miqad|meey-'aarets not into the times which precede the origin of the earth, but into the oldest times of its gradual arising; this qdmy it is impossible to render, in conformity with the Hebr. use of language: it is an extensive plur. of time, Böttcher, §697. The min repeated does not mean that the origin and greatness of Wisdom are contemporaneous with the foundation of the world; but that when the world was founded, she was already an actual existence.

PROVERBS. 8:24-26

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

This her existence before the world began is now set forth in yet more explicit statements: 24 "When there were as yet no floods was I brought forth, When as yet there were not fountains which abounded with water; 25 For before the mountains were settled, Before the hills was I brought forth, 26 While as yet He had not made land and plains, And the sum of the dust of the earth." The description is poetical, and affords some room for imagination. By t|howmowt are not intended the unrestrained primeval waters, but, as also Prov 3:20, the inner waters, treasures of the earth; and consequently by ma`|yaanowt , not the fountains of the sea on this earth (Ewald, after Job 38:16), but he springs or places of springs (for ma`|yaan is n. loci to `ayin , a well as an eye of the earth; vid., Gen 16:7), by means of which the internal waters of the earth communicate themselves to the earth above (cf. Gen 7:11 with 49:25). nik|baadeey-maayim (abounding with water) is a descriptive epitheton to ma`|yaanowt , which, notwithstanding its fem. plur., is construed as masc. (cf. Prov 5:16). The Masora does not distinguish the thrice-occurring nkbdy according to its form as written (Isa 23:8-9). The form nik|baadeey (which, like baatiym , would demand Metheg) is to be rejected; it is everywhere to be written nik|badeey (Ewald, §214b) with Pathach, with Dagesh following; vid., Kimchi, Michlol 61b. Kimchi adds the gloss rbym mym m`yny , which the Gr.

Venet., in accordance with the meaning of nkbd elsewhere, renders by peegai's dedoxasme'noon huda'toon (as also Böttcher: the most honoured = the most lordly); but Meîri, Immanuel, and others rightly judge that the adjective is here to be understood after Gen 13:2; Job 14:21 (but in this latter passage kbd does not mean "to be numerous"): loaded = endowed in rich measure.

Verse 25. Instead of b|'eeyn , in (yet) non-existence (24), we have here Terem , a subst. which signifies cutting off from that which already exists (vid., at Gen 2:5), and then as a particle nondum or antequam, with b| always antequam, and in v. 26 `ad-lo', so long not yet (this also originally a substantive from `aadaah , in the sense of progress). With haaT|baa`uw (were settled) (as Job 38:6, from Taaba` , to impress into or upon anything, imprimere, infigere) the question is asked: wherein? Not indeed: in the depths of the earth, but as the Caraite Ahron b. Joseph answers, hym qrq` 'l, in the bottom of the sea; for out of the waters they rise up, Ps 104:8 (cf. at Gen 1:9).

Verse 26. w|chuwtsowt 'erets is either, connecting the whole with its part: terra cum campis, or 'rts gains by this connection the meaning of land covered with buildings, while chwtswt the expanse of unoccupied land, or the free field outside the towns and villages (cf. bar , Arab. barrytt) (Fl.), vid., Job 5:10; 18:17 (where we have translated "in the steppe far and wide"); and regarding the fundamental idea, vid., above at Prov 5:16. Synonymous with 'rts , as contrast to chwtswt , is teebeel , which like y|buwl (produce, wealth) comes from yaabal , and thus denotes the earth as fruitbearing (as 'adaamaah properly denotes the humus as the covering of earth). Accordingly, with Ewald, we may understand by `ap|rowt ro'sh , "the heaps of the many clods of the fertile arable land lying as if scattered on the plains."

Hitzig also translates: "the first clods of the earth." We do not deny that `prwt may mean clods of earth, i.e., pieces of earth gathered together, as Job 28:6, zhb `ap|rot , gold ore, i.e., pieces of earth or ore containing gold. But for clods of earth the Heb. language has the nouns regeb and meg|raapaah; and if we read together `ap|rowt , plur. of the collective `aapaar (dust as a mass), which comes as from a n. unitatis `apaaraah , and ro'sh , which, among its meanings in poetry as well as in prose, has also that of the sum, i.e., the chief amount or the total amount (cf. the Arab. râs âlmâl, the capital, to' kefa'laion ), then the two words in their mutual relation yield the sense of the sum of the several parts of the dust, as of the atoms of dust (Cocceius; Schultens, summam pluverum orbis habitabilis); and Fleischer rightly remarks that other interpretations, as ab initio pulveris orbis, praecipus quaeque orbis terrarum, caput orbis terrarum (i.e., according to Rashi, the first man; according to Umbreit, man generally), leave the choice of the plur. `prwt unintelligible. Before these creatures originated, Wisdom was, as she herself says, and emphatically repeats, already born; chowlaal|tiy is the passive of the Pilel chowleel , which means to whirl, to twist oneself, to bring forth with sorrow (Aquila, Theodotion, oodinee'theen; Graec. Venet. 24a, pe'plasmai, 25b, oodi'neemai), then but poet. generally to beget, to bring forth (Prov 25:23; 26:10).

PROVERBS. 8:27

When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

But not only did her existence precede the laying of the foundation of the world; she was also actively taking part in the creative work: "When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He measured out a circle for the mirror of the multitude of waters." Again a sentence clothed with two designations of time. The adv. of place shaam is used, chiefly poetically, for 'aaz , eo tempore (Arab. thumm, in contradistinction to thamm, eo loco); but here it has the signification of place, which includes that of time: Wisdom was there when God created the world, and had then already long before that come into existence, like as the servant of Jahve, Isa 48:16, with just such a 'aaniy shaam , says that He is there from the time that the history of nations received a new direction, beginning with Cyrus. haakiyn signifies to give a firm position or a definite direction. Thus Job 28:27 of Wisdom, whom the Creator places before Himself as a pattern (ideal); here, as Jer 10:12; Ps 65:7, of the setting up, restoring throughout the whole world. In the parallel member, huwg , corresponding to shaamayim , appears necessarily to designate the circle or the vault of the heavens (Job 22:14), which, according to the idea of the Hebrews, as in Homer, rests as a half-globe on the outermost ends of the disc of the earth surrounded with water, and thus lies on the waters.

Vid., Hupfeld under Ps 24:2. This idea of the ocean girdling the earth is introduced into the O.T. without its being sanctioned by it. The LXX (kai' ho'te afoo'rize to'n heautou' thro'non ep' ane'moon ) appears to understand thwm of the waters above; but thwm never has this meaning, yaam (Job 9:8; 36:30) might rather be interpreted of the ocean of the heavens. The passage in accordance with which this before us is to be expounded is Job 26:10: He has set a limit for the surface of the waters, i.e., describing over them a circle setting bounds to their region. So here, with the exchange of the functions of the two words; when He marked out a circle over the surface of the multitude of waters, viz., to appoint a fixed region (miq|weh , Gen 1:10) for them, i.e., the seas, fountains, rivers, in which the waters under the heavens spread over the earth. chaaqaq signifies incidere, figere, to prescribe, to measure off, to consign, and directly to mark out, which is done by means of firm impressions of the graver's tools.

But here this verb is without the Dagesh, to distinguish between the infinitive and the substantive chuqow (his statute or limit); for correct texts have b|chuqow (Michlol 147a); and although a monosyllable follows, yet there is no throwing back of the tone, after the rule that words terminating in o in this case maintain their ultima accentuation (e.g., 'l msmow, Num 24:23). Fleischer also finally decides for the explanation: quum delinearet circulum super abysso, when He marked out the region of the sea as with the circle.

PROVERBS. 8:28-29

When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

In 28, 29, these two features of the figure of the creation of the world return (the beginning of the firmament, and the embankment of the under waters); hence we see that the discourse here makes a fresh start with a new theme: 28 "When He made firm the ether above, When He restrained the fountains of the waters; 29 When He set to the sea its bounds, That the waters should not pass their limits When He settled the pillars of the earth; 30 Then was I with Him as director of the work, And was delighted day by day, Rejoicing always before Him, 31 Rejoicing in His earth, And having my delight in the children of men." We have, with Symmachus, translated sh|chaaqiym (from shaachaq , Arab. shak, to grind, to make thin) by aithe'ra, for so the fine transparent strata of air above the hanging clouds are called-a poetic name of the firmament raaqiya` . The making firm 'ameets is not to be understood locally, but internally of the spreading out of the firmament over the earth settled for continuance (an expression such as Ps 78:23). In 28b the Masora notices the plur. `iynowt instead of `eeynowt with lyt as unicum (cf. Michlol 191a); the transition of the sound is as in gaaliytaa from galajta. The inf. `azowz appears on the first look to require a transitive signification, as the LXX and the Targ., the Graec. Venet. and Luther (da er festiget die Brünnen der tieffen = when He makes firm the fountains of the deep) have rendered it.

Elster accordingly believes that this signification must be maintained, because b| here introduces creative activity, and in itself is probably the transitive use of `aazaz , as the Arab. 'azz shows: when He set His `oz against the `aziym mayim (Isa 43:16). But the absence of the subject is in favour of the opinion that here, as everywhere else, it is intransitive; only we may not, with Hitzig, translate: when the fountains of the flood raged wildly; but, since 28b, if not a creative efficiency, must yet express a creative work, either as Ewald, with reference to m`wz, fortress: when they became firm, or better as Fleischer, with reference to `zym mym : when they broke forth with power, with strong fulness. Whether the suff. of chuqow , 29a, refers back to the sea or to Jahve, is decided after the parallel piyw .

If this word is equivalent to its coast (cf. Ps 104:9), then both suffixes refer to the sea; but the coast of the sea, or of a river, is called saapaah , not peh , which only means ostium (mouth), not ora. Also Isa 19:7 will require to be translated: by the mouth of the Nile, and that py , Ps 133:2, may denote the under edge, arises from this, that a coat has a mouth above as well as below, i.e., is open. Thus both suff. are to be referred to God, and pyw is to be determined after Job 23:12. The clause beginning with wmym corresponds in periodizing discourse to a clause with ut, Ewald, §338. b|chuwqow is the same form, only written plene, as v. 27, b|chuqow = b|chuqow = b|chaaq|qow. (Note: One might regard it as modified from bchqqw; but that shuwraay , Ps 102:12, is modified from shoraraay, or howraay , Gen 49:26, from hararay, is by no means certain.)

PROVERBS. 8:30

Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; In this sentence, subordinating to itself these designations of time, the principal question is as to the meaning of 'aamown , Hofmann's interpretation (Schriftbew. i. 97) "continually" (inf. absol. in an adverbial sense) is a judicious idea, and 'aaman , to endure, remains indeed in 'emet (stability); but in this sense, which ne'eman represents, it is not otherwise used. Also m|heeyman|taa' (believing, trusting) of the Targ. (Graec. Venet. pi'stis , as if the word used were 'eemuwn ) is linguistically inadmissible; the Hebr. he'emiyn corresponds to the Aram. haimeen. One of these two only is possible: 'aamown means either opifex or alumnus. The meaning alumnus (Aquila, titheenoume'nee; Meîri and Malbim, h'l bchyq 'mwn, en too' ko'lpoo tou' Theou' ) would derive the word from 'aaman , to support, make firm, take care of; the form ought to have a passive sense (Symm. Theod. esteerigme'nee), as gaadowl , twined, pressed, strong, great, and be pointed naaqod (with a moveable aa, different from the form baagowd , chaamowts , Isa 1:17); and 'aamown , in the meaning nursling, foster-child, favourite (Schultens, Euchel, Elster, and others, also Rashi and Kimchi, who all find in 'mwn the meaning of education, gydwl), would place itself with 'aamuwn, fostered, Lam 4:5, 'omeen , fosterer, 'omenet, foster-mother.

This is the meaning of the word according to the connection, for Wisdom appears further on as the child of God; as such she had her joy before Him; and particularly God's earth, where she rejoiced with the sons of men, was the scene of her mirth. But on this very account, because this is further said, we also lose nothing if 'mwn should be interpreted otherwise. And it is otherwise to be interpreted, for Wisdom is, in consequence of qnny (Prov 8:22), and chwllty, which is twice used (8:24-25), God's own child; but the designation 'mwn would make Him to be the 'omeen of Wisdom; and the child which an 'omeen bears, Num 11:12, and fosters, Est 2:7, is not his own. Hence it follows that 'imown in this signification would be an ha'pax lego'menon ; on the other hand, it really occurs elsewhere, Jer 52:15 (vid., Hitzig l.c.), in the sense of opifex. This sense, which recommends itself to Ewald, Hitzig, Bertheau, and Zöckler, lies also at the foundation of the harmo'zousa of the LXX, mtqn' of the Syr., the cuncta componens of Jerome, and the designation of Wisdom as hee too'n pa'ntoon techni'tis of the Book of Wisdom 7:21.

The workmaster is called 'aamown , for which, Song 7:2, 'aamaan , or rather 'aamaan (ommân), Aram. and Mishn. 'uwmaan; not, perhaps, as he whom one entrusts with something in whom one confides or may confide in a work (vid., Fleischer, loc), but from 'aaman , to be firm, as one who is strong in his art, as perhaps also the right hand, which has the name yaamiyn as being the artifex among the members. The word occurs also as an adjective in the sense of "experienced, skilful," and does not form a fem. according to the use of the word in this case before us, only because handicraft ('uwmaanuwt) belongs to men, and not to women; also in the Greek, deemiourgo's , in the sense of ta' deemo'sia (eis to' deemo'sion ) ergazo'menos , has no fem.; and in Lat., artifex is used as a substantive (e.g., in Pliny: artifex omnium natura), like an adj. of double gender.

It is thus altogether according to rule that we read 'aamown and not 'aamownaah (after the form baagowdaah ); also we would make a mistake if we translated the word by the German "Werkmeisterin" workmistress, directress (Hitzig), for it is intended to be said that she took up the place of a workmaster with Him, whereby chiefly the artistic performances of a chaaraash artificer are thought of. This self- designation of Wisdom is here very suitable; for after she has said that she was brought forth by God before the world was, and that she was present when it was created, this 'mwn now answers the question as to what God had in view when He gave to Wisdom her separate existence, and in what capacity she assisted in the creation of the world: it was she who transferred the creative thoughts originally existing in the creative will of God, and set in motion by His creative order, from their ideal into their real effectiveness, and, as it were, artistically carried out the delineations of the several creatures; she was the mediating cause, the demiurgic power which the divine creative activity made use of, as is said, Prov 3:19, "Jahve has by Wisdom founded the earth," and as the Jerusalem Targ. Gen 1:1, in connection with Prov 8:22, translates: 'ar|`aa' w|yat sh|mayaa' yat y|yaa b|raa' b|chuwk|maa'.

But-this is now the question-does the further unfolding of the thoughts here agree with this interpretation of 'mwn? That we may not misunderstand what follows, we must first of all represent to ourselves, that if 'mwn meant the foster-child, Wisdom could not yet, in what follows, be thought of as a little child (Num 11:12), for that would be an idea without any meaning; to rejoice \spielen = play] is certainly quite in accordance with youth, as 2 Sam 2:14 shows (where lpny schq is said of the sportive combat of youthful warriors before the captain), not exclusively little children. So, then, we must guard against interpreting sha`ashuw`iym , with the LXX and Syr., in the sense of sha`ashuw`aayw -an interpretation which the Targ., Jerome, the Graev. Venet., and Luther have happily avoided; for mention is not made here of what Wisdom is for Jahve, but of what she is in herself.

The expression is to be judged after Ps 109:4 (cf. Gen 12:2), where Hitzig rightly translates, "I am wholly prayer;" but Böttcher, in a way characteristic of his mode of interpretation, prefers, "I am ointment" (vid., Neue Aehrenlese, No. 1222). The delight is meant which this mediating participation in God's creating work imparted to her-joy in the work in which she was engaged. The pluralet. sh`shw`ym is to be understood here, not after Jer 13:20, but after Isa 11:8; Ps 119:70, where its root-word, the Pilpel shi`asha` (proceeding from the primary meaning of caressing, demulcere), signifies intransitively: to have his delight somewhere or in anything, to delight oneself-a synonym to the idea of play (cf. Aram. sh|`aa', Ethpe. to play, Ethpa. to chatter); for play is in contrast to work, an occupation which has enjoyment in view. But the work, i.e., the occupation, which aims to do something useful, can also become a play if it costs no strenuous effort, or if the effort which it costs passes wholly into the background in presence of the pleasure which it yields.

Thus Wisdom daily, i.e., during the whole course of creation, went forth in pure delight; and the activity with which she translated into fact the creative thoughts was a joyful noise in the sight of God, whose commands she obeyed with childlike devotion; cf. 2 Sam 6:21, where David calls his dancing and leaping before the ark of the covenant a h' lip|neey sacheeq . But by preference, her delight was in the world, which is illustrated from the Persian Minokhired, which personifies Wisdom, and, among other things, says of her: "The creation of the earth, and its mingling with water, the springing up and the growth of the trees, all the different colours, the odour, the taste, and that which is pleasing in everything-all that is chiefly the endowment and the performance of Wisdom." (Note: Vid., Spiegel's Grammatik der pârsisprache, p. 162, cf. 182.)

She also there says that she was before all celestial and earthly beings, the first with Ormuzd, and that all that is celestial and earthly arose and also remains in existence by her. But the earth was the dearest object of her delight in the whole world; to help in establishing it (Prov 3:19) was her joyful occupation; to fashion it, and to provide it with the multiplicity of existences designed for it, was the most pleasant part of her creative activity. For the earth is the abode of man, and the heart-pleasure of Wisdom was with ('et- , prep.) the children of men; with them she found her high enjoyment, these were her peculiar and dearest sphere of activity.

PROVERBS. 8:31

Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

Since the statements of Wisdom, as to her participation in the creation of the world, are at this point brought to a close, in this verse there is set forth the intimate relation into which she thus entered to the earth and to mankind, and which she has continued to sustain to the present day. She turned her love to the earth for the sake of man, and to man not merely as a corporeal, but especially as a spiritual being, to whom she can disclose her heart, and whom, if he receives her, she can bring back to God (Book of Wisdom 7:27). There are not here express references to Gen 1 or 2. In yowm yowm (day for day, as Gen 39:10, cf. Est 2:4, waayowm yowm ) we have not to think of the six days of creation. But inasmuch as the whole description goes down to 'aadaam b|neey as its central-point, it denotes that creation came to its close and its goal in man. The connection of 'erets teebeel is as Job 37:12, where 'ar|tsaah for 'erets is wholly, as lay|laah , char|caah, and the like, an original accusative.

PROVERBS. 8:32

Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.

After that Wisdom has shown in vv. 22-31 how worthy her fellowship is of being an object of desire from her mediating place between God and the world, she begins with this verse (as Prov 7:24; 5:7) the hortatory (paränetische) concluding part of her discourse: "And now, ye sons, hearken unto me, And salvation to those who keep my ways!" The LXX omits v. 33, and obviates the disturbing element of w|'ash|reey , 32b, arising from its w|, by a transposition of the stichs. But this w'sry is the same as the kai' maka'rios , Matt 11:6; the organic connection lies hid, as Schleiermacher (Hermeneutik, p. 73) well expresses it, in the mere sequence; the clause containing the proof is connected by w| with that for which proof is to be assigned, instead of subordinating itself to it with kiy . Such an exclamatory clause has already been met with in Prov 3:13, there 'aadaam follows as the governed genitive, here a complete sentence (instead of the usual participial construction, drky shom|reey ) forms this genitive, Gesen. §123, 3, Anm. 1.

PROVERBS. 8:33-36

Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.

The summons 32a, and its reason 32b, are repeated in these verses which follow: 33 "Hear instruction, and be wise, And withdraw not. 34 Blessed is the man who hears me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors! 35 For whosoever findeth me has found life, And has obtained favour from Jahve; 36 And whosoever misseth me doeth wrong to himself; All they who hate me love death." The imper. wachakaanuw, 33a (et sapite), is to be judged after Prov 4:4, wich|yeeh, cf. the Chethîb, 13:20; one sees this from the words w|'altip| raa`uw which follow, to which, after 15:32, as at 4:13, to 'al-terep, muwcaar is to be placed as object: and throw not to the winds (ne missam faciatis; vid., regarding pr` at 1:25), viz., instruction (disciplinam).

Verse 34. The 'ash|reey here following shim|`uw is related to it as assigning a motive, like the w|'ash|reey (v. 32b) following shm`w; according to the Masora, we have to write 'ash|reey with Mercha, and on the first syllable Gaja (vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, pp. 26, 29; cf. under Ps 1:1). lish|qod signifies to watch, not in the sense of ad vigilandum, but vigilando, as Isa 5:22; 30:1; Ewald, §380d. In contradistinction to hee`iyr and heeqiyts , which denote watching as the consequence of wakefulness or an interruption of sleep, shaaqad signifies watching as a condition, and that as one which a person willingly maintains (Psychol. p. 275), the intentional watching (cf.

Arab. shakidha, to fix penetrating eyes upon anything), with `al of the place and object and aim (Jer 5:6; cf. `l h`yr , Job 8:6).

The plurals d|laatowt (fores, as chomowt , Jer 1:18, maenia) and p|taachiym are amplifying plurs. of extension, suggesting the idea of a palace or temple; m|zuwzot (postes portae, in quibus cardines ejus moventur, from zuwz, to move hither and thither) is intended to indicate that he to whom the discourse refers holds himself in closest nearness to the entrance, that he might not miss the moment when it is opened, or when she who dwells there presents herself to view. "The figure is derived from the service of a court: Wisdom is honoured by her disciples, as a queen or high patroness; cf. Samachschari's Golden Necklaces, Pr. 35: Blessed is the man who knocks only at God's door, and who departs not a nail's breadth from God's threshold" (Fl.).

Verse 35. This verse gives the reason for pronouncing those happy who honour Wisdom. The Chethîb is chayiym mots|'eey mots|'ay kiy, but the passing over into the sing. 35b is harsh and objectionable; the Kerî rightly regards the second mts'y as a mistaken repetition of the first, and substitutes chyym maatsaa' mots|'iy ky , with which the w|choT|'iy (v. 36a) of the antithesis agrees. Regarding mots|'iy , for which, less accurately, mots|'iy (only with the Dechî without Metheg) is generally written, vid., Accentuationssystem, vii. §2. heepiyq, to get out = reach, exchanged with maatsaa' , Prov 3:13 (vid., there); according to its etymon, it is connected with min , of him from or by whom one has reached anything; here, as 12:2; 18:22, God's favour, favorem a Jova impetravit.

Verse 36. choT|'iy may, it is true, mean "my sinning one = he who sins against me (liy () choTee' )," as qaamay is frequently equivalent to `aalay qaamiym ; but the contrast of mots|'iy places it beyond a doubt that chT' stands here in its oldest signification: to miss something after which one runs (Prov 19:2), seeks (Job 5:24), at which one shoots (Hiph. Judg 20:16), etc., id non attingere quod petitur, Arab. âkhta, to miss, opposite to âtsab, to hit (Fl.).

Just because it is the idea of missing, which, ethically applied, passes over into that of sin and guilt (of fault, mistake, false step, "Fehls, Fehlers, Fehltritts"), chT' can stand not only with the accusative of the subject in regard to which one errs, Lev 5:16, but also with the accusative of the subject which one forfeits, i.e., misses and loses, Prov 20:2, cf. Hab 2:10; so that not only nap|show mo'eec , 15:32 (animam suam nihili facit), but also nap|show chowTee' , 20:2 (animam suam pessumdat), is synonymous with nap|show chomeec (animae suae h. e. sibi ipsi injuriam facit). Whoever misses Wisdom by taking some other way than that which leads to her, acts suicidally: all they who wilfully hate (Piel) wisdom love death, for wisdom is the tree of life, Prov 3:18; wisdom and life are one, 35a, as the Incarnate Wisdom saith, John 8:51, "If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death." In the Logos, Wisdom has her self-existence; in Him she has her personification, her justification, and her truth.

FIFTEENTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, A Double Invitation: That of Wisdom, and That of Her Rival, Folly The preceding discourse pronounces those happy who, having taken their stand at the portal of Wisdom, wait for her appearance and her invitation.

There is thus a house of Wisdom as there is a house of God, Ps 84:11; and if now the discourse is of a house of Wisdom, and of an invitation to a banquet therein (like that in the parable, Matt 22, of the invitation to the marriage feast of the king's son), it is not given without preparation: 1 Wisdom hath builded for herself an house, Hewn out her seven pillars; 2 Hath slaughtered her beasts, mingled her wine; Hath also spread her table; 3 Hath sent out her maidens; she waiteth On the highest points of the city.

PROVERBS. 9:1

Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

Regarding chaak|mowt , vid., at Prov 1:20. It is a plur. excellentiae, which is a variety of the plur. extensivus. Because it is the expression of a plural unity, it stands connected (as for the most part also 'lhym, Deus) with the sing. of the predicate. The perfects enumerate all that Wisdom has done to prepare for her invitation. If we had a parable before us, the perf. would have run into the historical watish|lach ; but it is, as the tiq|raa' shows, an allegorical picture of the arrangement and carrying out of a present reality. Instead of bayit laah () baan|taah there is beeytaah baan|taah , for the house is already in its origin represented as hers, and 1b is to be translated: she has hewn out her seven pillars (Hitzig); more correctly: her pillars, viz., seven (after the scheme raa`aah dibaataam , Gen 37:2); but the construction is closer. shb`h is, altogether like Ex 25:37, the accusative of the second object, or of the predicate after the species of verba, with the idea: to make something, turn into something, which take to themselves a double accusative, Gesen. §139, 2: excidit columnas suas ita ut septem essent.

Since the figure is allegorical, we may not dispense with the interpretation of the number seven by the remark, "No emphasis lies in the number" (Bertheau).

First, we must contemplate architecturally the house with seven pillars: "They are," as Hitzig rightly remarks, "the pillars of the mic|d|rown (porch) \vid. Bachmann under Judg 3:23, and Wetstein under Ps 144:12, where chaaTab is used of the cutting out and hewing of wood, as chaatsab of the cutting out and hewing of stone] in the inner court, which bore up the gallery of the first (and second) floors: four of these in the corners and three in the middle of three sides; through the midst of these the way led into the court of the house-floor the area." But we cannot agree with Hitzig in maintaining that, with the seven pillars of 8 and 9, the author looks back to the first seven chapters (Arab. âbwab, gates) of this book; we think otherwise of the component members of this Introduction to the Book of Proverbs; and to call the sections of a book "gates, sh`rym," is a late Arabico-Jewish custom, of which there is found no trace whatever in the O.T. To regard them also, with Heidenheim (cf. Dante's Prose Writings, translated by Streckfuss, p. 77), as representing the seven liberal arts (chkmwt shb`) is impracticable; for this division of the artes liberales into seven, consisting of the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectics) and Quadrivium (Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy), is not to be looked for within the old Israelitish territory, and besides, these were the sciences of this world which were so divided; but wisdom, to which the discourse here refers, is wholly a religious-moral subject.

The Midrash thinks of the seven heavens (rqy`ym shb`h), or the seven climates or parts of the earth ('rtswt shb`h ), as represented by them; but both references require artificial combinations, and have, as also the reference to the seven church-eras (Vitringa and Chr. Ben.

Michaelis), this against them, that they are rendered probable neither from these introductory proverbial discourses, nor generally from the O.T. writings. The patristic and middle-age reference to the seven sacraments of the church passes sentence against itself; but the old interpretation is on the right path, when it suggests that the seven pillars are the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. The seven-foldness of the manifestation of the Spirit, already brought near by the seven lamps of the sacred candelabra (the m|nowraah ), is established by Isa 11:2 (vid., l.c.); and that Wisdom is the possessor and dispenser of the Spirit she herself testifies, Prov 1:23.

Her Spirit is the "Spirit of wisdom;" but at the same time, since, born of God, she is mediatrix between God and the world, also the "Spirit of Jahve," He is the "spirit of understanding," the "spirit of counsel," and the "spirit of might" (Isa 11:2); for she says, 8:14, "Counsel is men, and reflection; I am understanding, I have strength." He is also the "spirit of knowledge," and the "spirit of the fear of the Lord" (Isa 11:2); for fear and the knowledge of Jahve are, according to 9:14, the beginning of wisdom, and essentially wisdom itself.

PROVERBS. 9:2

She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.

If thus the house of Wisdom is the place of her fellowship with those who honour her, the system of arrangements made by her, so as to disclose and communicate to her disciples the fulness of her strength and her gifts, then it is appropriate to understand by the seven pillars the seven virtues of her nature communicating themselves (apocalyptically expressed, the hepta' pneu'mata ), which bear up and adorns the dwelling which she establishes among men. Flesh and wine are figures of the nourishment for the mind and the heart which is found with wisdom, and, without asking what the flesh and the wine specially mean, are figures of the manifold enjoyment which makes at once strong and happy. The segolate n. verbale Tebach , which Prov 7:22 denoted the slaughtering or the being slaughtered, signifies here, in the concrete sense, the slaughtered ox; Michaelis rightly remarks that Tbch , in contradistinction to zbch , is the usual word for mactatio extrasacrificialis. Regarding yayin maacak| , vid., under Isa 5:22; it is not meant of the mingling of wine with sweet scents and spices, but with water (warm or cold), and signifies simply to make the wine palatable (as kerannu'nai, temperare); the LXX eke'rasen eis kratee'ra kratee'r is the name of the vessel in which the mixing takes place; they drank not a'kraton , but kekerasme'non a'kraton , Rev 14:10. The frequently occurring phrase shul|chaan `aarak| signifies to prepare the table (from shulach , properly the unrolled and outspread leather cover), viz., by the placing out of the dishes (vid., regarding `aarak| , under Gen 22:9).