{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/kad/pro009.htm","path":"bib/cmt/kad/pro009.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/kad/pro009.htm","text":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsh, [1857-78]\nThe 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, Psa 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:\n1 Wisdom hath builded for herself an house,\nHewn out her seven pillars;\n2 Hath slaughtered her beasts, mingled her wine;\nHath also spread her table;\n3 Hath sent out her maidens; she waiteth\nOn the highest points of the city.\nRegarding \u05d7\u05db\u05de\u05d5\u05ea, vid., at Pro 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 \u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd, 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 \u05d5\u05ea\u05bc\u05e9\u05c1\u05dc\u05d7; but it is, as the \u05ea\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0 shows, an allegorical picture of the arrangement and carrying out of a present reality. Instead of \u05d1\u05bc\u05e0\u05ea\u05d4 \u05dc\u05bc\u05d4\u05bc \u05d1\u05bc\u05d9\u05ea there is \u05d1\u05bc\u05e0\u05ea\u05d4 \u05d1\u05bc\u05d9\u05ea\u05d4\u05bc, 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 \u05d3\u05d1\u05bc\u05ea\u05dd \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4, Gen 37:2); but the construction is closer. \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05e2\u05d4 is, altogether like Exo 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 \u05de\u05e1\u05d3\u05bc\u05e8\u05d5\u05df (porch) [vid. Bachmann under Jdg 3:23, and Wetstein under Psa 144:12, where \u05d7\u05d8\u05d1 is used of the cutting out and hewing of wood, as \u05d7\u05e6\u05d1 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 chap. 8 and 9, the author looks back to the first seven chapters (Arab. \u00e2bwab, 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, \u05e9\u05c1\u05e2\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd,\" 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 (\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05e2 \u05d7\u05db\u05de\u05d5\u05ea) 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 (\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05e2\u05d4 \u05e8\u05e7\u05d9\u05e2\u05d9\u05dd), or the seven climates or parts of the earth (\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05e2\u05d4 \u05d0\u05e8\u05e6\u05d5\u05ea), 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 \u05de\u05e0\u05d5\u05e8\u05d4), is established by Isa 11:2 (vid., l.c.); and that Wisdom is the possessor and dispenser of the Spirit she herself testifies, Pro 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, Pro 8:14, \"Counsel is mine, 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 Pro 9:14, the beginning of wisdom, and essentially wisdom itself.\nIf 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 \u1f11\u03c0\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03cd\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1), which bear up and adorn 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 \u05d8\u05d1\u05d7, which Pro 7:22 denoted the slaughtering or the being slaughtered, signifies here, in the concrete sense, the slaughtered ox; Michaelis rightly remarks that \u05d8\u05d1\u05d7, in contradistinction to \u05d6\u05d1\u05d7, is the usual word for mactatio extrasacrificialis. Regarding \u05de\u05e1\u05da \u05d9\u05d9\u05df, 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 \u03ba\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03bd\u03cd\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9, temperare); the lxx \u1f10\u03ba\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03ba\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c1\u03b1, \u03ba\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1 is the name of the vessel in which the mixing takes place; they drank not \u1f04\u03ba\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd, but \u03ba\u03b5\u03ba\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd \u1f04\u03ba\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd, Rev 14:10. The frequently occurring phrase \u05e2\u05e8\u05da \u05e9\u05c1\u05dc\u05d7\u05df signifies to prepare the table (from \u05e9\u05c1\u05dc\u05bc\u05d7, properly the unrolled and outspread leather cover), viz., by the placing out of the dishes (vid., regarding \u05e2\u05e8\u05da, under Gen 22:9).\nThe verb \u05e7\u05e8\u05d0, when a feast is spoken of, means to invite; \u05e7\u05e8\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd, Pro 9:18 (cf. Sa1 9:13, etc.), are the guests. \u05e0\u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05ea\u05d9\u05d4 the lxx translates \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b4\u03bf\u03cd\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, but certainly here the disciples are meant who already are in the service of Wisdom; but that those who are invited to Wisdom are thought of as feminine, arises from the tasteful execution of the picture. The invitation goes forth to be known to all far and wide, so that in her servants Wisdom takes her stand in the high places of the city. Instead of \u05d1\u05bc\u05e8\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1, Pro 8:2; Pro 1:21, there is used here the expression \u05e2\u05dc\u05be\u05d2\u05bc\u05e4\u05bc\u05d9. We must distinguish the Semitic \u05d2\u05bc\u05e3 (= ganf), wings, from \u05d2\u05e0\u05e3 = \u05db\u05e0\u05e3, to cover, and \u05d2\u05bc\u05e3 (= gaff or ganf), the bark, which is derived either from \u05d2\u05bc\u05e4\u05e3 or \u05d2\u05bc\u05e0\u05e3, Arab. jnf, convexus, incurvus et extrinsecus gibber fuit, hence originally any surface bent outwards or become crooked (cf. the roots cap, caf, \u05e7\u05d1 \u05db\u05e3 \u05d2\u05e3 \u05d2\u05d1, etc.), here the summit of a height (Fl.); thus not super alis (after the analogy of \u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03cd\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd, after Suidas = \u1f00\u03ba\u03c1\u03c9\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd), but super dorsis (as in Lat. we say \u03b4\u03bf\u03c1\u03c3\u03c5\u03bc \u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2, and also viae).\nNow follows the street-sermon of Wisdom inviting to her banquet:\n4 Who is simple? let him come hither!\"\nWhoso wanteth understanding, to him she saith:\n5 \"Come, eat of my bread,\nAnd drink of the wine which I have mingled!\n6 Cease, ye simple, and live,\nAnd walk straight on in the way of understanding.\"\nThe question \u05de\u05d9 \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9 (thus with Munach, not with Makkeph, it is to be written here and at Pro 9:16; vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 40), quis est imperitus, is, as Psa 25:12, only a more animated expression for quisquis est. The retiring into the background of the \u05e0\u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05ea (servants), and the immediate appearance of Wisdom herself, together with the interruption, as was to be expected, of her connected discourses by the \u05d0\u05de\u05e8\u05d4 \u05dc\u05bc\u05d5, are signs that the pure execution of the allegorical representation is her at an end. Hitzig seeks, by the rejection of Pro 9:4, Pro 9:5, Pro 9:7-10, to bring in a logical sequence; but these interpolations which he cuts out are yet far more inconceivable than the proverbial discourses in the mouth of Wisdom, abandoning the figure of a banquet, which besides are wholly in the spirit of the author of this book. That Folly invites to her, Pro 9:16, in the same words as are used by Wisdom, Pro 9:4, is not strange; both address themselves to the simple (vid., on \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9 at Pro 1:4) and those devoid of understanding (as the youth, Pro 7:7), and seek to bring to their side those who are accessible to evil as to good, and do not dully distinguish between them, which the emulating devertat huc of both imports. The fourth verse points partly backwards, and partly forwards; 4a has its introduction in the \u05ea\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0 of Pro 9:3; on the contrary, 4b is itself the introduction of what follows. The setting forth of the nom. absolutus \u05d7\u05e1\u05e8\u05be\u05dc\u05d1 is conditioned by the form of 4a; the \u05de\u05d9 (cf. 4a) is continued (in 4b) without its needing to be supplied: excors (= si quis est excors) dicit ei (not dixit, because syntactically subordinating itself to the \u05ea\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0). It is a nominal clause, whose virtual predicate (the devoid of understanding is thus and thus addressed by her) as in Pro 9:16.\nThe plur. of the address shows that the simple (inexperienced) and the devoid of understanding are regarded as essentially one and the same class of men. The \u05d1\u05bc after \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd and \u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05d4 proceeds neither from the idea of eating into (hewing into) anything, nor from the eating with anything, i.e., inasmuch as one makes use of it, nor of pampering oneself with anything (as \u05e8\u05d0\u05d4 \u05d1); Michaelis at last makes a right decision (cf. Lev 22:11; Jdg 13:16; Job 21:25, and particularly \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd \u05d1\u05bc, Psa 141:4): communicationem et participationem in re fruenda denotat; the lxx \u03c6\u03ac\u03b3\u03b5\u03c4\u03b5 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f10\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f04\u03c1\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd. The attributive \u05de\u05e1\u05db\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9 stands with backward reference briefly for \u05de\u05e1\u05db\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9\u05d5. That Wisdom, Pro 9:2, offers flesh and wine, but here presents bread and wine, is no contradiction, which would lead us, with Hitzig, critically to reject Pro 9:4 and Pro 9:5 as spurious; \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd is the most common, all-comprehensive name for nourishment. Bertheau suitably compares Jahve's invitation, Isa 55:1, and that of Jesus, Joh 6:35.\nThat \u05e4\u05ea\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd is a plur. with abstract signification (according to which the four Greek and the two Aramaean translations render it; the Graec. Venet., however, renders \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03af\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2) is improbable; the author forms the abstr. Pro 9:13 otherwise, and the expression here would be doubtful. For \u05e4\u05ea\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd is here to be rendered as the object-accus.: leave the simple, i.e., forsake this class of men (Ahron b. Joseph; Umbreit, Zckler); or also, which we prefer (since it is always a singular thought that the \"simple\" should leave the \"simple\"), as the vocative, and so that \u05e2\u05d6\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc means not absolutely \"leave off\" (Hitzig), but so that the object to be thought of is to be taken from \u05e4\u05ea\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd: give up, leave off, viz., the simple (Immanuel and others; on the contrary, Rashi, Meri, and others, as Ewald, Bertheau, decide in favour of \u05e4\u05ea\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd as n. abstr.). Regarding \u05d5\u05d7\u05d9\u05d5\u05bc, for et vivetis, vid., Pro 4:4. The lxx, paraphrasing: \u1f35\u03bd\u03b1 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03b1\u1f30\u1ff6\u03bd\u03b1 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03c3\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5. \u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8 is related to \u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc\u05e8 (\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc\u05e8) is \u05d3\u05bc\u05e8\u05da to \u05d3\u05bc\u05e8\u05da; the Piel, not in its intrans. (vid., Pro 4:14) but in its trans. sense (Isa 1:17; Isa 3:12, etc.), shows that the idea of going straight out and forwards connects itself therewith. The peculiarity of the \u05e4\u05ea\u05d9 is just the absence of character.\nIn what now follows the discourse of Wisdom is continued; wherefore she directs her invitation to the simple, i.e., those who have not yet decided, and are perhaps susceptible of that which is better:\n7 \"He who correcteth a scorner draweth upon himself insult;\nAnd he who communicateth instruction to a scorner, it is a dishonour to him.\n8 Instruct not a scorner, lest he hate thee;\nGive instruction to the wise, so he will love thee.\n9 Give to the wise, and he becomes yet wiser;\nGive knowledge to the upright, and he gains in knowledge.\"\nZckler thinks that herewith the reason for the summons to the \"simple\" to forsake the fellowship of men of their own sort, is assigned (he explains 6a as Ahron b. Joseph: \u05d4\u05e4\u05e8\u05d3\u05d5 \u05de\u05df \u05d4\u05e4\u05ea\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd); but his remark, that, under the term \"simple,\" mockers and wicked persons are comprehended as belonging to the same category, confounds two sharply distinguished classes of men. \u05dc\u05e5 is the freethinker who mocks at religion and virtue (vid., Pro 1:22), and \u05e8\u05e9\u05c1\u05e2 the godless who shuns restraint by God and gives himself up to the unbridled impulse to evil. The course of thought in Pro 9:7 and onwards shows why Wisdom, turning from the wise, who already are hers, directs herself only to the simple, and those who are devoid of understanding: she must pass over the \u05dc\u05e5 and \u05e8\u05e9\u05c1\u05e2 dna , because she can there hope for no receptivity for her invitation; she would, contrary to Mat 7:6, \"give that which is holy to the dogs, and cast her pearls before swine.\" \u05d9\u05e1\u05e8, \u03c0\u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd (with the prevailing idea of the bitter lesson of reproof and punishment), and \u05d4\u05d5\u05db\u05d9\u05d7, \u1f10\u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, are interchangeable conceptions, Psa 94:10; the \u05dc is here exponent of the object (to bring an accusation against any one), as Pro 9:8, Pro 15:12 (otherwise as Isa 2:4; Isa 11:4, where it is the dat. commodi: to bring unrighteousness to light, in favour of the injured). \u05d9\u05e1\u05e8 \u05dc\u05e5 is pointed with Mahpach of the penultima, and thus with the tone thrown back. The Pasek, placed in some editions between the two words, is masoretically inaccurate. He who reads the moral to the mocker brings disgrace to himself; the incorrigible replies to the goodwill with insult. Similar to the \u05dc\u05e7\u05d7 \u05dc\u05d5 here, is \u05de\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd tollit = reportat, Pro 3:25; Pro 4:27. In 7b \u05de\u05d5\u05bc\u05de\u05d5 is by no means the object governed by \u05d5\u05bc\u05de\u05d5\u05db\u05d9\u05d7: and he who shows to the godless his fault (Meri, Arama, Lwenstein: \u05de\u05d5\u05de\u05d5 = \u05e2\u05dc\u05be\u05de\u05d5\u05de\u05d5, and thus also the Graec. Venet. \u03bc\u1ff6\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd \u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1ff7, scil. \u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9); plainly \u05de\u05d5\u05de\u05d5 is parallel with \u05e7\u05dc\u05d5\u05df. But \u05de\u05d5\u05de\u05d5 does not also subordinate itself to \u05dc\u05e7\u05d7 as to the object. parallel \u05e7\u05dc\u05d5\u05df: maculam sibimet scil. acquirit; for, to be so understood, the author ought at least to have written \u05dc\u05d5 \u05de\u05d5\u05bc\u05dd. Much rather \u05de\u05d5\u05de\u05d5 is here, as at Deu 32:5, appos., thus pred. (Hitzig), without needing anything to be supplied: his blot it is, viz., this proceeding, which is equivalent to \u05de\u05d5\u05bc\u05de\u05d0 \u05d4\u05d5\u05bc\u05d0 \u05dc\u05d9\u05d4\u05bc (Targ.), opprobrio ipsi est. Zckler not incorrectly compares Psa 115:7 and Ecc 5:16, but the expression (macula ejus = ipsi) lies here less remote from our form of expression. In other words: Whoever correcteth the mockers has only to expect hatred (\u05d0\u05dc\u05be\u05ea\u05d5\u05db\u05d7 with the tone thrown back, according to rule; cf. on the contrary, Jdg 18:25), but on the other hand, love from the wise.\nThe \u05d5 in \u05d5\u05d9\u05d0\u05d4\u05d1\u05da is that of consequence (apodosis imperativi): so he will love thee (as also Ewald now translates), not: that he may love thee (Syr., Targ.), for the author speaks here only of the consequence, not of something else, as an object kept in view. The exhortation influences the mocker less than nothing, so much the more it bears fruit with the wise. Thus the proverb is confirmed habenti dabitur, Mat 13:12; Mat 25:29.\nIf anything is to be supplied to \u05ea\u05bc\u05df, it is \u05dc\u05e7\u05d7 (Pro 4:2); but \u05ea\u05df, tradere, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03b4\u03b9\u03b4\u03cc\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9, is of itself correlat. of \u05dc\u05e7\u05d7, accipere (post-bibl. \u05e7\u05d1\u05bc\u05dc), \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, e.g., Gal 1:9. \u05d4\u05d5\u05d3\u05d9\u05e2 \u05dc = to communicate knowledge, \u05d3\u05e2\u05ea, follows the analogy of \u05d4\u05d5\u05db\u05d9\u05d7 \u05dc, to impart instruction, \u05ea\u05d5\u05db\u05d7\u05ea. Regarding the jussive form \u05d5\u05d9\u05d5\u05e1\u05e3 in the apod. imper., vid., Gesen. 128, 2. Observe in this verse the interchange of \u05d7\u05db\u05dd and \u05e6\u05d3\u05d9\u05e7! Wisdom is not merely an intellectual power, it is a moral quality; in this is founded her receptivity of instruction, her embracing of every opportunity for self-improvement. She is humble; for, without self-will and self-sufficiency, she makes God's will her highest and absolutely binding rule (Pro 3:7).\nThese words naturally follow:\n10 \"The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jahve,\nAnd the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.\"\nThis is the highest principle of the Chokma, which stands (Pro 1:7) as a motto at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs. The lxx translate \u05e8\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05ea there (Pro 1:7), and \u05ea\u05bc\u05d7\u05dc\u05bc\u05ea here, by \u1f00\u03c1\u03c7\u03ae. Gusset distinguishes the two synonyms as pars optima and primus actus; but the former denotes the fear of God as that which stands in the uppermost place, to which all that Wisdom accomplishes subordinates itself; the latter as that which begins wisdom, that which it proposes to itself in its course. With \u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 is interchanged, Pro 2:5, \u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd, as here \u05e7\u05d3\u05d5\u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05dd, as the internally multiplicative plur. (Dietrich, Abhandlungen, pp. 12, 45), as Pro 30:3, Jos 24:9; Hos 12:1, of God, the \"Holy, holy, holy\" (Isa 6:3), i.e., Him who is absolutely Holy. Michaelis inaccurately, following the ancients, who understood not this non-numerical plur.: cognitio quae sanctos facit et sanctis propria est. The \u05d3\u05bc\u05e2\u05ea, parallel with \u05d9\u05e8\u05d0\u05ea, is meant of lively practical operative knowledge, which subordinates itself to this All-holy God as the normative but unapproachable pattern.\nThe singular reason for this proverb of Wisdom is now given:\n\"For by me will thy days become many,\nAnd the years of thy life will be increased.\"\nIncorrectly Hitzig: \"and years of life will increase to thee;\" \u05d4\u05d5\u05e1\u05d9\u05e3 is always and everywhere (e.g., also Job 38:11) transitive. In the similar passage, Pro 3:2, \u05d9\u05d5\u05e1\u05d9\u05e4\u05d5 had as its subject the doctrine of Wisdom; here \u05d7\u05db\u05de\u05d4 and \u05d1\u05d9\u05e0\u05d4 it is not practicable to interpret as subj., since 11a Wisdom is the subject discoursing - the expression follows the scheme, dicunt eos = dicuntur, as e.g., Job 7:3; Gesen. 137 - a concealing of the operative cause, which lies near, where, as Pro 2:22, the discourse is of severe judgment, thus: they (viz., the heavenly Powers) will grant to thee years of life (\u05d7\u05d9\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd in a pregnant sense, as Pro 3:2) in rich measure, so that constantly one span comes after another. But in what connection of consequence does this stand with the contents of the proverb, Pro 9:10? The ancients say that the clause with \u05db\u05d9 refers back to Pro 9:5. The Pro 9:7-10 (according also to Fl.) are, as it were, parenthetic. Hitzig rejects these verses as an interpolation, but the connection of Pro 9:11 with 5f. retains also something that is unsuitable: \"steps forward on the way of knowledge, for by me shall thy days become many;\" and if, as Hitzig supposes, Pro 9:12 is undoubtedly genuine, whose connection with Pro 9:11 is in no way obvious, then also will the difficulty of the connection of Pro 9:7-10 with the preceding and the succeeding be no decisive mark of the want of genuineness of this course of thought. We have seen how the progress of Pro 9:6 to 7 is mediated: the invitation of Wisdom goes forth to the receptive, with the exclusion of the irrecoverable. And Pro 9:11 is related to Pro 9:10, as the proof of the cause from the effect. It is the fear of God with which Wisdom begins, the knowledge of God in which above all it consists, for by it is fulfilled the promise of life which is given to the fear of God, Pro 10:27; Pro 14:27; Pro 19:23, cf. Deu 4:40, and to humility, which is bound up with it. Pro 10:17.\nThis wisdom, resting on the fear of God, is itself a blessing to the wise:\n\"If thou art wise, thou art wise for thyself;\nAnd if thou mockest, thou alone shalt bear it.\"\nThe lxx, with the Syr., mangle the thought of 12a, for they translate: if thou art wise for thyself, so also thou wilt be wise for thy neighbour. The dat. commodi \u05dc\u05da means that it is for the personal advantage of the wise to be wise. The contrast expressed by Job 22:2.: not profitable to God, but to thyself (Hitzig), is scarcely intended, although, so far as the accentuation is antithetic, it is the nearest. The perf. \u05d5\u05dc\u05e6\u05ea\u05bc is the hypothetical; Gesen. 126, 1. To bear anything, viz., anything sinful (\u05d7\u05d8\u05d0 or \u05e2\u05d5\u05df), is equivalent to, to atone for it, Job 34:2, cf. Num 9:13; Eze 23:35. Also 12b is a contrast scarcely aimed at. Wisdom is its own profit to man; libertinism is its own disgrace. Man decides, whenever he prefers to be wise, or to be a mocker of religion and of virtue, regarding his own weal and woe. With this nota bene the discourse of Wisdom closes.\nThe poet now brings before us another figure, for he personifies Folly working in opposition to Wisdom, and gives her a feminine name, as the contrast to Wisdom required, and thereby to indicate that the seduction, as the 13th proverbial discourse (chap. 7) has shown, appears especially in the form of degraded womanhood:\n13 The woman Folly [Frau Thorheit] conducts herself boisterously,\nWantonness, and not knowing anything at all;\n14 And hath seated herself at the door of her house,\nOn a seat high up in the city,\n15 To call to those who walk in the way,\nWho go straight on their path.\nThe connection of \u05d0\u05e9\u05ea \u05db\u05bc\u05e1\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea is genitival, and the genitive is not, as in \u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea \u05e8\u05e2, Pro 6:24, specifying, but appositional, as in \u05d1\u05ea\u05be\u05e6\u05d9\u05d5\u05df (vid., under Isa 1:8). \u05d4\u05d5\u05de\u05d9\u05bc\u05d4 [boisterous] is pred., as Pro 7:11 : her object is sensual, and therefore her appearance excites passionately, overcoming the resistance of the mind by boisterousness. In 13b it is further said who and how she is. \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea she is called as wantonness personified. This abstract \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea, derived from \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9, must be vocalized as \u05d0\u05db\u05d6\u05e8\u05d9\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea; Hitzig thinks it is written with a on account of the following u sound, but this formation always ends in ijj\u00fbth, not ajj\u00fbth. But as from \u05d7\u05d6\u05d4 as well \u05d7\u05d6\u05bc\u05d9\u05d5\u05df = \u05d7\u05d6\u05d9\u05d5\u05df as \u05d7\u05d6\u05d5\u05df is formed, so from \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d4 as well \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea like \u05d7\u05d6\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea or \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea like \u05dc\u05d6\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea, \u05e8\u05e2\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea, as \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea (instead of which \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea is preferred) can be formed; Kimchi rightly (Michlol 181a) presents the word under the form \u05e4\u05bc\u05e2\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea. With \u05d5\u05bc\u05d1\u05dc (Pro 14:7) poetic, and stronger than \u05dc\u05d0\u05d5, the designation of the subject is continued; the words \u05d5\u05bc\u05d1\u05dc\u05be\u05d9\u05d3\u05e2\u05d4 \u05de\u05bc\u05d4 (thus with Mercha and without Makkeph following, \u05d9\u05d3\u05e2\u05d4 is to be written, after Codd. and old editions) have the value of an adjective: and not knowing anything at all (\u05de\u05d4 = \u03c4\u1f76, as Num 23:3; Job 13:13, and here in the negative clause, as in prose \u05de\u05d0\u05d5\u05bc\u05de\u05d4), i.e., devoid of all knowledge. The Targ. translates explanatorily: not recognising \u05d8\u05d1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d0, the good; and the lxx substitutes: she knows not shame, which, according to Hitzig, supposes the word \u05db\u05bc\u05dc\u05de\u05bc\u05d4, approved of by him; but \u05db\u05dc\u05de\u05d4 means always pudefactio, not pudor. To know no \u05db\u05dc\u05de\u05d4 would be equivalent to, to let no shaming from without influence one; for shamelessness the poet would have made use of the expression \u05d5\u05d1\u05dc\u05be\u05d9\u05d3\u05e2\u05d4 \u05d1\u05bc\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea. In \u05d5\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d4 the declaration regarding the subject beginning with \u05d4\u05d5\u05de\u05d9\u05d4 is continued: Folly also has a house in which works of folly are carried one, and has set herself down by the door (\u05dc\u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d7 as \u05dc\u05e4\u05d9, Pro 8:3) of this house; she sits there \u05e2\u05dc\u05be\u05db\u05bc\u05e1\u05bc\u05d0. Most interpreters here think on a throne (lxx \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b4\u03af\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5, used especially of the sella curulis); and Zckler, as Umbreit, Hitzig, and others, connecting genitiv. therewith \u05de\u05e8\u05de\u05d9 \u05e7\u05e8\u05ea, changes in 14b the scene, for he removes the \"high throne of the city\" from the door of the house to some place elsewhere. But the sitting is in contrast to the standing and going on the part of Wisdom on the streets preaching (Evagrius well renders: in molli ignavaque sella); and if \u05db\u05e1\u05d0 and house-door are named along with each other, the former is a seat before the latter, and the accentuation rightly separates by Mugrash \u05db\u05e1\u05d0 from \u05de\u05e8\u05de\u05d9 \u05e7\u05e8\u05ea. \"According to the accents and the meaning, \u05de\u05e8\u05de\u05d9 \u05e7\u05e8\u05ea is the acc. loci: on the high places of the city, as Pro 8:2.\" (Fl.). They are the high points of the city, to which, as Wisdom, Pro 9:3, Pro 8:2, so also Folly, her rival (wherefore Ecc 10:6 does not appertain to this place), invites followers to herself. She sits before her door to call \u05dc\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9 \u05d3\u05e8\u05da (with Munach, as in Cod. 1294 and old editions, without the Makkeph), those who go along the way (genitive connection with the supposition of the accusative construction, transire viam, as Pro 2:7), to call (invite) \u05d4\u05de\u05d9\u05e9\u05bc\u05c1\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd (to be pointed with \u05de raphatum and Gaja going before, according to Ben-Asher's rule; vid., Methegsetz. 20), those who make straight their path, i.e., who go straight on, directly before them (cf. Isa 57:2). The participial construction (the schemes amans Dei and amans Deum), as well as that of the verb \u05e7\u05e8\u05d0 (first with the dat. and then with the accus.), interchange.\nThe woman, who in her own person serves as a sign to her house, addresses those who pass by in their innocence (\u05dc\u05ea\u05de\u05bc\u05dd, Sa2 15:11):\n16 \"Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither!\"\nAnd if any one is devoid of understanding, she saith to him:\n17 \"Stolen waters taste sweet,\nAnd the bread of secrecy is pleasant.\"\n\u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9 (folly, simplicity) has a side accessible to good and its contrary: Wisdom is connected with the one side, and Folly with the other. And as the \u05d7\u05e1\u05e8\u05be\u05dc\u05d1 offers a vacuum to Wisdom which may perhaps be filled with the right contents, so is this vacuum welcome to Folly, because it meets there no resistance. In this sense, Pro 9:16 is like Pro 9:4 (excepting the addition of a connecting and of a concluding \u05d5: et si quis excors, tum dicit ei); the word is the same in both, but the meaning, according to the two speakers, is different. That to which they both invite is the pleasure of her fellowship, under the symbol of eating and drinking; in the one case it is intellectual and spiritual enjoyment, in the other sensual. That Wisdom offers (Pro 9:5) bread and wine, and Folly water and bread, has its reason in this, that the particular pleasure to which the latter invites is of a sensual kind; for to drink water out of his own or out of another fountain is (Pro 3:15-20) the symbol of intercourse in married life, or of intercourse between the unmarried, particularly of adulterous intercourse. \u05de\u05d9\u05dd \u05d2\u05bc\u05e0\u05d5\u05bc\u05d1\u05d9\u05dd (correct texts have it thus, without the Makkeph) is sexual intercourse which is stolen from him who has a right thereto, thus carnal intercourse with \u05d0\u05d5\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea \u05d0\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1; and \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd \u05e1\u05ea\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd fleshly lust, which, because it is contrary to the law, must seek (cf. furtum, secret love intrigue) concealment (\u05e1\u05ea\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd, extensive plur., as \u05de\u05e2\u05de\u05e7\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd; Bttcher, 694). Just such pleasure, after which one wipes his mouth as if he had done nothing (Pro 30:20), is for men who are without wisdom sweet (\u05de\u05ea\u05e7, Job 20:12) and pleasant; the prohibition of it gives to such pleasure attraction, and the secrecy adds seasoning; and just such enjoyments the \u05db\u05e1\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea, personified carnality, offers. But woe to him who, befooled, enters her house!\nHe goes within:\n18 And he knows not that the dead are there;\nIn the depths of Hades, her guests.\nHow near to one another the house of the adulteress and Hades are, so that a man passes through the one into the other, is already stated in Pro 2:18; Pro 7:27. Here, in the concluding words of the introduction to the Book of Proverbs, addressed to youth, and for the most part containing warning against sinful pleasure, these two further declarations are advanced: the company assembled in the house of lewdness consists of \u05e8\u05e4\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd, i.e., (cf. p. 83) the old, worn-out, who are only in appearance living, who have gone down to the seeming life of the shadowy existence of the kingdom of the dead; her (\u05db\u05e1\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea) invited ones (cf. Pro 7:26, her slaughtered ones) are in the depths of Hades (not in the valleys, as Umbreit, Lwenstein, and Ewald translate, but in the depths, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03b2\u03b1\u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03b9; for \u05e2\u05de\u05e7\u05d9 is not only plur. to \u05e2\u05de\u05e7, but also per metaplasmum to \u05e2\u05de\u05e7, Pro 25:3, as \u05d0\u05de\u05e8\u05d9 to \u05d0\u05de\u05e8), thus in \u05e9\u05c1\u05d0\u05d5\u05dc \u05ea\u05bc\u05d7\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9\u05ea (Deu 32:22); they have forsaken the fellowship of the life and of the love of God, and have sunk into the deepest destruction. The house of infamy into which Folly allures does not only lead to hell, it is hell itself; and they who permit themselves to be thus befooled are like wandering corpses, and already on this side of death are in the realm of wrath and of the curse.\n(Note: The lxx has considerable additions introduced after Pro 9:18, as also after Pro 9:12, of which we shall elsewhere speak.)","title":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch: Proverbs: Proverbs Chapter 9","type":"page"}