{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/kad/pro027.htm","path":"bib/cmt/kad/pro027.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/kad/pro027.htm","text":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsh, [1857-78]\nIn the group Pro 27:1-6 of this chapter every two proverbs form a pair. The first pair is directed against unseemly boasting:\n1 Boast not thyself of to-morrow,\nFor thou knowest not what a day bringeth forth.\nThe \u05d1 of \u05d1\u05bc\u05d9\u05d5\u05dd is like, e.g., that in Pro 25:14, the \u05d1 of the ground of boasting. One boasts of to-morrow when he boasts of that which he will then do and experience. This boasting is foolish and presumptuous (Luk 12:20), for the future is God's; not a moment of the future is in our own power, we know not what a day, this present day or to-morrow (Jam 4:13), will bring forth, i.e., (cf. Zep 2:2) will disclose, and cannot therefore order anything beforehand regarding it. Instead of \u05dc\u05d0\u05be\u05ea\u05d3\u05e2 (with Kametz and Mugrash), \u05d0\u05dc\u05be\u05ea\u05d3\u05e2 (thus e.g., the Cod. Jaman) is to be written; the Masora knows nothing of that pausal form. And instead of \u05de\u05d4\u05be\u05d9\u05bc\u05dc\u05d3 \u05d9\u05d5\u05dd, we write \u05de\u05d4 \u05d9\u05bc\u05dc\u05d3 \u05d9\u05d5\u05dd with Zinnorith. \u05d9\u05bc\u05dc\u05d3 before \u05d9\u05d5\u05dd has the tone thrown back on the penult., and consequently a shortened ult.; the Masora reckons this word among the twenty-five words with only one Tsere.\n2 Let another praise thee, and not thine own mouth;\nA stranger, and not thine own lips.\nThe negative \u05dc\u05d0 is with \u05e4\u05d9\u05da, as in (Arab.) ghyra fyk, bound into one compact idea: that which is not thine own mouth (Fleischer), \"not thine own lips,\" on the other hand, is not to be interpreted as corresponding to it, like \u05d0\u05dc\u05be\u05de\u05d5\u05ea, Pro 12:28; since after the prohibitive \u05d0\u05dc, \u05d9\u05d4\u05dc\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc\u05da [praise thee] easily supplies itself. \u05d6\u05e8 is properly the stranger, as having come from a distance, and \u05e0\u05db\u05e8\u05d9 he who comes from an unknown country, and is himself unknown (vid., under Pro 26:24); the idea of both words, however, passes from advena and alienigena to alius. There is certainly in rare cases a praising of oneself, which is authorized because it is demanded (Co2 11:18), which, because it is offered strongly against one's will, will be measured by truth (Pro 10:13); but in general it is improper to applaud oneself, because it is a vain looking at oneself in a glass; it is indecent, because it places others in the shade; imprudent, because it is of no use to us, but only injures, for propria laus sordet, and as Stobus says, \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u1f72\u03bd \u03bf\u1f55\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2 \u1f04\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1 \u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u1f78\u03bd \u1f61\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8 \u0313 \u03b1\u1f51\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f14\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2. Compare the German proverb, \"Eigenlob stinkt, Freundes Lob hinkt, fremdes Lob klingt\" [= self-praise stinks, a friend's praise is lame, a stranger's praise sounds].\nThe second pair of proverbs designates two kinds of violent passion as unbearable:\n3 The heaviness of a stone, the weight of sand -\nA fool's wrath is heavier than both.\nWe do not translate: Gravis est petra et onerosa arena, so that the substantives stand for strengthening the idea, instead of the corresponding adjective (Fleischer, as the lxx, Jerome, Syr., Targum); the two pairs of words stand, as 4a, in genit. relation (cf. on the contrary, Pro 31:30), and it is as if the poet said: represent to thyself the heaviness of a stone and the weight of sand, and thou shalt find that the wrath of a fool compared thereto is still heavier, viz., for him who has to bear it; thus heavier, not for the fool himself (Hitzig, Zckler, Dchsel), but for others against whom his anger goes forth. A Jewish proverb (vid., Tendlau, No. 901) says, that one knows a man by his wine-glass (\u05db\u05d5\u05e1), his purse (\u05db\u05d9\u05e1), and his anger (\u05db\u05e2\u05e1), viz., how he deports himself in the tumult; and another says that one reads what is in a man \u05d1\u05d9\u05d5\u05dd \u05db\u05e2\u05e1\u05d5, when he is in an ill-humour. Thus also \u05db\u05e2\u05e1 is to be here understood: the fool in a state of angry, wrathful excitement is so far not master of himself that the worst is to be feared; he sulks and shows hatred, and rages without being appeased; no one can calculate what he may attempt, his behaviour is unendurable. Sand, \u05d7\u05d5\u05dc,\n(Note: Sand is called by the name \u05d7\u05d5\u05bc\u05dc (\u05d7\u05d9\u05dc), to change, whirl, particularly to form sand-wreaths, whence (Arab.) al-Habil, the region of moving sand; vid., Wetzstein's Nord-arabien, p. 56.)\nas it appears, as to the number of its grains innumerable, so as to its mass (in weight) immeasurable, Job 6:3; Sir. 22:13. \u05e0\u05d8\u05dc the Venet. translates, with strict regard to the etymology, by \u1f05\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1.\n4 The madness of anger, and the overflowing of wrath -\nAnd before jealousy who keeps his place!\nHere also the two pairs of words 4a stand in connection; \u05d0\u05db\u05d6\u05e8\u05d9\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea (for which the Cod. Jaman has incorrectly \u05d0\u05db\u05d6\u05e8\u05d9\u05d5\u05ea) is the connecting form; vid., regarding \u05d0\u05db\u05d6\u05e8\u05d9, Pro 5:9. Let one imagine the blind, relentless rage of extreme excitement and irritation, a boiling over of anger like a water-flood, which bears everything down along with it - these paroxysms of wrath do not usually continue long, and it is possible to appease them; but jealousy is a passion that not only rages, but reckons calmly; it incessantly ferments through the mind, and when it breaks forth, he perishes irretrievably who is its object. Fleischer generalizes this idea: \"enmity proceeding from hatred, envy, or jealousy, it is difficult or altogether impossible to withstand, since it puts into operation all means, both secretly and openly, to injure the enemy.\" But after Pro 6:34., cf. Sol 8:8, there is particularly meant the passion of scorned, mortified, deceived love, viz., in the relation of husband and wife.\nThe third pair of proverbs passes over from this special love between husband and wife to that subsisting between friends:\n5 Better is open accusation\nThan secret love.\nAn integral distich; mee\u05d0\u05d4\u05d1\u05d4 has Munach, and instead of the second Metheg Tarcha, after Thorath Emeth, p. 11. Zckler, with Hitzig, incorrectly: better than love which, from false indulgence, keeps concealed from his neighbour his faults, when he ought to tell him of them. That would require the phrase \u05d0\u05d4\u05d1\u05d4 \u05de\u05e1\u05ea\u05bc\u05e8\u05ea, not \u05de\u05e1\u05ea\u05bc\u05e8\u05ea. Dchsel, in order to accommodate the text to this meaning, remarks: concealed censure is concealed love; but it is much rather the neglected duty of love - love without mutual discipline is weak, faint-hearted, and, if it is not too blind to remark in a friend what is worthy of blame, is altogether too forbearing, and essentially without conscience; but it is not \"hidden and concealed love.\" The meaning of the proverb is different: it is better to be courageously and sternly corrected - on account of some fault committed - by any one, whether he be a foe or a friend, than to be the object of a love which may exist indeed in the heart, but which fails to make itself manifest in outward act. There are men who continually assure us of the reality and depth of their friendship; but when it is necessary for them to prove their love to be self-denying and generous, they are like a torrent which is dry when one expects to drink water from it (Job 6:15). Such \"secret\" love, or, since the word is not \u05e0\u05e1\u05ea\u05bc\u05e8\u05ea, but \u05de\u05e1\u05ea\u05bc\u05e8\u05ea, love confined to the heart alone, is like a fire which, when it burns secretly, neither lightens nor warms; and before such a friend, any one who frankly and freely tells the truth has by far the preference, for although he may pain us, yet he does us good; while the former deceives us, for he leaves us in the lurch when it is necessary to love us, not merely in word and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth (Jo1 3:18). Rightly Fleischer: Praestat correptio aperta amicitiae tectae, i.e., nulla re probatae.\n6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend,\nAnd overloaded [plentiful] the kisses of an enemy.\nThe contrast to \u05e0\u05d0\u05de\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd, true, i.e., honourable and good (with the transference of the character of the person to his act), would be fraudulenta (Jerome), or \u05e0\u05d4\u05e4\u05db\u05d5\u05ea, i.e., false (Ralbag); Ewald seeks this idea from \u05e2\u05ea\u05e8, to stumble, make a false step;\n(Note: Thus also Schultens in the Animadversiones, which later he fancied was derived from \u05e2\u05ea\u05e8, nidor, from the meaning nidorosa, and thence virulenta.)\nHitzig, from \u05e2\u05ea\u05e8 = (Arab.) dadhr, whence d\u00e2dhir, perfidus, to gain from; but (1) the comparison does not lie near, since usually the Arab. t corresponds to the Heb. \u05e9\u05c1, and the Arab. d to the Heb. \u05d6; (2) the Heb. \u05e2\u05ea\u05e8 has already three meanings, and it is not advisable to load it with yet another meaning assumed for this passage, and elsewhere not found. The three meanings are the following: (a) to smoke, Aram. \u05e2\u05d8\u05e8, whence \u05e2\u05ea\u05e8, vapour, Eze 8:11, according to which the Venet., with Kimchi's and Parchon's Lex., translates: the kisses of an enemy \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03c9\u03bc\u03af\u03c7\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, i.e., are fog; (b) to sacrifice, to worship, Arab. atar; according to which Aquila: \u1f31\u03ba\u03b5\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03ac (as, with Grabe, it is probably to be read for \u1f11\u03ba\u03bf\u03cd\u03c3\u03b9\u03b1 of the lxx); and agreeably to the Niph., but too artificially, Arama: obtained by entreaties = constrained; (c) to heap up, whence Hiph. \u05d4\u05e2\u05ea\u05d9\u05e8, Eze 35:13, cf. Jer 33:6, according to which Rashi, Meri, Gesenius, Fleischer, Bertheau, and most explain, cogn. with \u05e2\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8, whose Aram. form is \u05e2\u05ea\u05e8, for \u05e2\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8 is properly a heap of goods or treasures.\n(Note: Vid., regarding this word, Schlottmann in Deutsch.-Morgenl. Zeitschrift, xxiv. 665, 668.)\nThis third meaning gives to the kisses of an enemy a natural adjective: they are too abundant, so much the more plentiful to veil over the hatred, like the kisses by means of which Judas betrayed his Lord, not merely denoted by \u03c6\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd, but by \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c6\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd, Mat 26:49. This, then, is the contrast, that the strokes inflicted by one who truly loves us, although they tear into our flesh (\u05e4\u05bc\u05e6\u05e2, from \u05e4\u05bc\u05e6\u05e2, to split, to tear open), yet are faithful (cf. Psa 141:5); on the contrary, the enemy covers over with kisses him to whom he wishes all evil. Thus also \u05e0\u05e2\u05ea\u05e8\u05d5\u05ea forms an indirect contrast to \u05e0\u05d0\u05de\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd.\nIn Pro 27:7-10 there is also visible a weaving of the external with the internal. First, there are two proverbs, in each of which there is repeated a word terminating with \u05e0.\n7 A satisfied soul treadeth honeycomb under foot;\nAnd a hungry soul - everything bitter is (to it) sweet.\nIt is unnecessary to read \u05ea\u05bc\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05d6 (Hitzig); \u05ea\u05bc\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05e1 is stronger; \"to tread with the feet\" is the extreme degree of scornful despite. That satiety and hunger are applicable to the soul, vid., under Pro 10:3. In 7b, the adverb \u05dc\u05d4\u05bc, relative to the nomin. absol., like Pro 28:7, but not Pro 13:18. \"Hunger is the best cook,\" according to a German proverb; the Hebrew proverb is so formed that it is easily transferred to the sphere of the soul. Let the man whom God has richly satisfied with good things guard himself against ingratitude towards the Giver, and against an undervaluing of the gifts received; and if they are spiritual blessings, let him guard himself against self-satisfaction and self-contentment, which is, in truth, the worst poverty, Rev 3:17; for life without God is a constant hunger and thirst. There is in worldly things, even the most pleasing, a dissatisfaction felt, and a dissatisfaction awakening disgust; and in spiritual life, a satiety which supposes itself to be full of life, but which is nothing else than the decay of life, than the changing of life into death.\n8 As a bird that wandereth from her nest,\nSo is a man that wandereth from his home.\nIt is not a flying out that is meant, from which at any moment a return is possible, but an unwilling taking to flight (lxx 8b: \u1f45\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd \u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03be\u03b5\u03bd\u03c9\u03b8\u1fc7; Venet.: \u03c0\u03bb\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03cd\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd ... \u03c0\u03bb\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03cd\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2); for \u05e2\u05d5\u05e3 \u05e0\u05d5\u05d3\u05d3, Isa 16:2, cf. Jer 4:25, birds that have been frightened; and \u05e0\u05d3\u05d3, Pro 21:15., designates the fugitive; cf. \u05e0\u05e2 \u05d5\u05e0\u05d3, Gen 4:14, and above, Pro 26:2, where \u05e0\u05d5\u05bc\u05d3 designates aimless roving about. Otherwise Fleischer: \"warning against unnecessary roaming about, in journeyings and wanderings far from home: as a bird far from its nest is easily wounded, caught, or killed, so, on such excursions, one easily comes to injury and want. One may think of a journey in the East. The Arabs say, in one of their proverbs: \u00e2lsafar \u1e33a\u1e6d'at man \u00e2lklyym (= journeying is a part of the pains of hell).\" But \u05e0\u05d3\u05d3 here is not to be understood in the sense of a libere vagari. Rightly C. B. Michaelis: qui vagatur extorris et exul a loco suo sc. natali vel habitationis ordinariae. This proverb mediately recommends the love of one's fatherland, i.e., \"love to the land in which our father has his home; on which our paternal mansion stands; in which we have spent the years of our childhood, so significant a part of one's whole life; from which we have derived our bodily and intellectual nourishment; and in which home we recognise bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.\"\n(Note: Gustave Baur's article \"Vaterlandsliebe,\" in Schmid's Pdagogischer Encyklopdie.)\nBut next it says, that to be in a strange land must be an unhappiness, because a man never feels better than at home, as the bird in its nest. We say: Heimat [home] - this beautiful word becomes the German language, which has also coined the expressive idea of Heimweh [longing for home]; the Heb. uses, to express the idea of home, the word \u05de\u05e7\u05d5\u05de\u05d9; and of fatherland, the word \u05d0\u05e8\u05e6\u05d9 or \u05d0\u05d3\u05de\u05ea\u05d9. The Heb. \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea corresponds\n(Note: The translators transfer to this place a note from vol. ii. p. 191f. of the author's larger Comm. . den Psalter, to which Delitzsch refers the reader: - \"The modern High German adj. elend, middle High German ellende, old High German alilandi, elilendi, or elilenti, is composed of ali and land. The adj. ali occurs only in old High German in composition. In the Gothic it is found as an independent adj., in the sense of alius and \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03c5\u03c2 (vid., Ulfilas, Gal 5:10). The primary meaning of elilenti is consequently: of another country, foreign. In glosses and translations it is rendered by the Lat. words peregrinus, exul, advena, also captivus. In these meanings it occurs very frequently. In the old High German translation of Ammonius, Diatessaron, sive Harmoniae in quatuor Evangelica, the word proselytism, occurring in Mat 23:15, is rendered by elilantan. To the adj. the old High German subst. corresponds. This has the meaning exilium, transmigratio, captivitas. The connection in elilenti or elilentes, used adverbially, is rendered by the Lat. peregre. In the middle High German, however, the proper signification of both words greatly predominates. But as, in the old High German, the idea of miser is often at the same time comprehended in the proper signification: he who is miserable through banishment, imprisonment, or through sojourning in a strange land; thus, in several places of the middle High German, this derived idea begins to separate itself from the fundamental conception, so that ellende comes in general to be called miser. In the new High German this derived conception is almost alone maintained. Yet here also, in certain connections, there are found traces of the original idea, e.g., in's Elend schicken, for to banish. Very early also the word came to be used, in a spiritual sense, to denote our present abode, in contrast to paradise or the heavenly kingdom.... Thus, e.g., in one of Luther's hymns, when we pray to the Holy Ghost:\nDas er vns behte, an vnserm ende,\nWenn wir heim farn aus diesem elende.\"\n[That He guard us to our end\nWhen we go home from this world.]\n- Rud. von Raumer)\nto the German Elend, but = Ellend, elilenti, of another land, strange.\nThe two following proverbs have in common the catchword \u05e8\u05e2, and treat of the value of friendship: -\n9 Oil and frankincense rejoice the heart;\nAnd the sweet discourse of a friend from a counselling of soul.\nRegarding the perfuming with dry aromas, and sprinkling with liquid aromas, as a mark of honour towards guests, and as a means of promoting joyful social fellowship, vid., at Pro 7:16., Pro 21:17. The pred. \u05d9\u05e9\u05c2\u05de\u05bc\u05d7 comprehends frankincense or oil as the two sides of one and the same thing; the lxx introduces, from Psa 104:15, also wine. It also reads \u05d5\u05de\u05ea\u05e7 \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4 as one word, \u05d5\u05bc\u05de\u05ea\u05e7\u05e8\u05e2\u05ea: \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u1fe4\u1fe5\u03ae\u03b3\u03bd\u03c5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b4\u1f72 \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bc\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9\u03bc\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03ae, which Hitzig regards as original; for he translates, understanding \u05de\u05e2\u05e6\u05ea after Psa 13:3, \"but the soul is torn by cares.\" But why \u05de\u05ea\u05e7\u05e8\u05e2\u05d4, this Hithpa. without example, for \u05e0\u05e7\u05e8\u05e2\u05d4? and now connected with \u05de\u05df in the sense of \u1f51\u03c0\u03cc! And what does one gain by this Alexandrian wisdom [of the lxx] - a contrast to 9a which is altogether incongruous? Dderlein's rendering accords far better with 9a: \"but the sweetness of a friend surpasses fragrant wood.\" But although this rendering of the word [\u05e2\u05e6\u05d4] by \"fragrant wood\" is found in Gesen. Lex., from one edition to another, yet it must be rejected; for the word signifies wood as the contents of trees, the word for aromatic wood must be \u05e2\u05e6\u05d9\u05dd; and if the poet had not intentionally aimed at dubiety, he ought to have written \u05e2\u05e6\u05d9 \u05d1\u05e9\u05c2\u05dd, since \u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1, which the exception of Isa 3:20, where it is beyond doubt, nowhere means fragrance. If we read \u05e2\u05e6\u05ea and \u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1 together, then we may suppose that the latter designates the soul, as at Psa 13:3; and the former, counsel (from the verb \u05d9\u05e2\u05e5). But to what does the suffix of \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc refer? One may almost conjecture that the words originally were \u05d5\u05bc\u05de\u05ea\u05e7 \u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1 \u05de\u05e2\u05e6\u05ea \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc, and the sweetness of the soul (i.e., a sweet relish for it, cf. Pro 27:7 and Pro 16:24) consists in the counsel of a friend, according to which Jerome translates: et bonis amici conciliis anima dulcoratur. By this transposition \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4\u05d5 refers back to \u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1; for is nephesh denote a person or a living being, it can be construed ad sensum as masc., e.g., Num 31:28. But the words may remain in the order in which they are transmitted to us. It is possible that \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc is (Bttcher refers to Job 12:4) of the same meaning as \u05d4\u05e8\u05e2 (the friend of one = the friend), as \u05db\u05dc\u05bc\u05d5 denotes directly the whole; \u05d7\u05e6\u05d9\u05d5, the half; \u05e2\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5, the right time. Recognising this, Cocceius, Umbreit, Stier, and Zckler explain: sweetness, i.e., the sweet encouragement (\u05de\u05ea\u05e7, in the sense of \"sweetness (grace) of the lips,\" Pro 16:21) of a friend, is better than one's own counsel, than prudence seeking to help oneself, and trusting merely to one's own resources; thus also Rashi: better than what one's own soul advises him. But (1) \u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1 cannot mean one's own person (oneself) in contrast to another person; and (2) this does not supply a correct antithesis to 9a. Thus \u05de\u05df will not express the preference, but the origin. Accordingly Ewald, e.g., explains: the sweetness of a friend whom one has proceedeth from the counsel of soul, i.e., from such counsel as is drawn from a deep, full soul. But no proof can be brought from the usage of the language that \u05e2\u05e6\u05ea\u05be\u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1 can be so meant; these words, after the analogy of \u05d3\u05e2\u05ea \u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1, Pro 19:2, mean ability to give counsel as a quality of the soul (Pro 8:14; Pro 12:13), i.e., its ability to advise. Accordingly, with Bertheau, we explain \u05d9\u05e9\u05c2\u05de\u05d7\u05be\u05dc\u05d1 as the common predicate for 9a and 9b: ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, and (The Syr., Targ., well: even so) the sweet exhortation of a friend, from a soul capable of rendering counsel; also, this and this, more than that fragrance. This proverb is formed in the same way as Pro 26:9, Pro 26:14. In this explanation \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4\u05d5 is well referred back to \u05dc\u05d1: and (more than) the sweet advice of his friend. But not so that \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4\u05d5 is equivalent to \u05e8\u05e2 \u05d4\u05dc\u05bc\u05d1, for one does not thus speak; but the construction is as when we say, in the German language: Nichts thut einem Herzen woler als wenn sein Freund es mitfhlend trstet [nothing does more good to a heart than when a friend sympathizingly comforts it]; or: Zage nicht, tief betrbtes Herz! Dein Freund lebt und wird dir bald sich zeigen [Be not dismayed, deeply-troubled heart! thy friend lives, and will soon show himself to thee]. In such cases the word \"Herz\" [heart] does not designate a distinct part of the person, but, synecdochically, it denotes the whole person.\nAnother proverb, consisting of three lines, in commendation of friendship:\nThine own friend and the friend of thy father forsake not,\nAnd into thy brother's house go not in the day of thy misfortune -\nBetter is a near neighbour than a far-off brother.\nIn our editions \u05e8\u05e2\u05da is incorrectly appointed with Pasek after it, so that the accent is Asla Legarmeh; the Pasek is, after the example of older editions, with Norzi, to be cancelled, so that only the conjunctive Asla remains; \"thine own and the friend of thy father\" denotes the family friend, like some family heirloom, descending from father to son. Such an old tried friend one must certainly not give up. The Ker\u0131\u0302 changes the second \u05d5\u05e8\u05e2\u05d4 into \u05d5\u05e8\u05e2, but \u05d5\u05e8\u05e2\u05d4 (which, after the Masora in st. constr., retains its segol, Ewald, 211e) is also admissible, for a form of comparison (Hitzig) this \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4 is not, but the fuller form of the abbreviated \u05e8\u05e2, from \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4, to take care of, to tend, to pasture - an infinitive formation (= \u05e8\u05e2\u05d9) like the Arab. cogn. r\u00e2'in a participial. Such a proved friend one ought certainly not to give up, and in the time of heavy trial (vid., regarding \u05d0\u05d9\u05d3, Pro 1:26) one should go to him and not to a brother's house - it is by this supposed that, as Pro 18:24 says, there is a degree of friendship (cf. Pro 17:17) which in regard to attachment stands above that of mere fraternal relationship, and it is true; blood-relationship, viewed in itself, stands as a relationship of affection on natural grounds below friendship, which is a relationship of life on moral grounds. But does blood-relationship exclude friendship of soul? cannot my brother be at the same time my heart-friend? and is not friendship all the firmer when it has at the same time its roots in the spirit and in natural grounds? The poet seems to have said this, for in 10c, probably a popular saying (cf. \"Besser Nachbar an der Wand als Bruder ber Land\" [Better a neighbour by one's side than a brother abroad]), he gives to his advice a foundation, and at the same time a limitation which modifies its ruggedness. But Dchsel places (like Schultens) in \u05e7\u05e8\u05d5\u05d1 and \u05e8\u05d7\u05d5\u05e7 meanings which the words do not contain, for he interprets them of inward nearness and remoteness; and Zckler reads between the lines, for he remarks, a \"near neighbour\" is one who is near to the oppressed to counsel and help them, and a \"distant brother\" is one who with an unamiable disposition remains far from the oppressed. The state of the matter is simple. If one has a tried friend in neighbourly nearness, so in the time of distress, when he needs consolation and help, he must go to this friend, and not first to the house of a brother dwelling at a distance, for the former certainly does for us what the latter probably may and probably may not do for us.\nThis proverb has, in common with the preceding tristich, the form of an address:\nBecome wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice,\nThat I may give an answer to my accusers.\nBetter than \"be wise\" (Luther), we translate \"become wise\" (lxx \u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u1f78\u03c2 \u03b3\u03af\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5); for he who is addressed might indeed be wise, though not at present so, so that his father is made to listen to such deeply wounding words as these, \"Cursed be he who begat, and who educated this man\" (Malbim). The cohortative clause 11b (cf. Psa 119:42) has the force of a clause with a purpose (Gesen. 128:1): ut habeam quod iis qui me convicientur regerere possim; it does not occur anywhere in the Hezekiah collection except here.\n\u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd appears to lean on \u05d7\u05db\u05dd.\nThe prudent man seeth the misfortune, hideth himself;\nThe simple pass on, suffer injury.\n= Pro 22:3, where \u05d5\u05bc\u05e4\u05ea\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd for \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd, \u05d5\u05e0\u05e1\u05ea\u05bc\u05e8 for \u05e0\u05e1\u05ea\u05bc\u05e8, and \u05d5\u05e0\u05e2\u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc for \u05e0\u05e2\u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc; the three asyndeta make the proverb clumsy, as if it counted out its seven words separately to the hearer. Ewald, 349a, calls it a \"Steinschrift\" an inscription on a stone. The perfects united in pairs with, and yet more without, Vav, express the coincidence\n(Note: The second Munach is at Pro 22:3, as well as here, according to the rule Pro 18:4 of the Accentuationssystem, the transformation of the Dechi, and preserves its value of interpunction; the Legarmeh of \u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd is, however, a disjunctive of less force than Dechi, so that thus the sequence of the accents denotes that \u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e8\u05d0\u05d4 \u05e8\u05e2\u05d4 is a clause related to \u05d5\u05e0\u05e1\u05ea\u05e8 as a hypothetical antecedent: if the prudent sees the calamity, then he hides himself from it. This syntactic relation is tenable at Pro 22:3, but not here at Pro 27:12. Here, at least, \u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd would be better with Rebia, to which the following Dechi would subordinate itself. The prudent seeth the evil, concealeth himself; or also, prudent is he who sees the evil, hides himself. For of two disjunctives before Athnach, the first, according as it is greater or less than the second, retains either Legarmeh (e.g., Psa 1:5; Psa 86:12; Psa 88:14; Psa 109:14) or Rebia (Pro 12:2, Psa 25:2; Psa 69:9; Psa 146:5).)\nas to time.\n\u05e2\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd alliterates with \u05e2\u05e8\u05d1.\nTake from him the garment, for he hath become surety for another,\nAnd for the sake of a strange matter put him under bonds.\n= Pro 20:16, vid., there. \u05e0\u05db\u05e8\u05d9\u05bc\u05d4 we interpret neut. (lxx \u03c4\u1f70 \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u03cc\u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03b1; Jerome, pro alienis), although certainly the case occurs that one becomes surety for a strange woman (Aquila, Theodotion, \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76 \u03be\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2), by whose enticements and flatteries he is taken, and who afterwards leaves him in the lurch with the debts for which he had become security, to show her costly favour to another.\nThis proverb, passing over the three immediately intervening, connects itself with Pro 27:9 and Pro 27:10. It is directed against cringing, noisy complimenting:\nHe who blesseth his neighbour with a loud voice, rising early in the morning,\nIt is reckoned as a curse to him.\nThe first line is intentionally very heavy, in order to portray the empressement of the maker of compliments: he calls out to another his good wishes with a loud voice, so as to make the impression of deep veneration, of deeply felt thankfulness, but in reality to gain favour thereby, and to commend himself to greater acts of kindness; he sets himself to meet him, having risen up (\u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05db\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd, adverbial inf. abs.; cf. Jer 44:4 with Jer 25:4) early in the morning, to offer his captatio benevolentiae as speedily as possible; but this salutation of good wishes, the affected zeal in presenting which is a sign of a selfish, calculating, servile soul, is reckoned to him as \u05e7\u05dc\u05dc\u05d4, viz., before God and every one who can judge correctly of human nature, also before him who is complimented in so ostentatious and troublesome a manner, the true design of which is thus seen. Others understand the proverb after the example of Berachoth 14a, that one ought to salute no one till he has said his morning's prayer, because honour is due before all to God (the Book of Wisdom, 10:28); and others after Erachin 16a, according to which one is meant who was invited as a guest of a generous lord, and was liberally entertained, and who now on the public streets blesses him, i.e., praises him for his nobility of mind - such blessing is a curse to him whom it concerns, because this trumpeting of his praise brings upon him a troublesome, importunate crowd. But plainly the particularity of '\u05d1\u05bc\u05e7\u05d5\u05dc \u05d5\u05d2\u05d5 lays the chief emphasis on the servility manifested; and one calls to mind the case of the clients besieging the doors of their patrons, those clientes matutini, each of whom sought to be the first in the salutatio of his distinguished wealthy patron.\nThis proverb passes from the complimentarius to its opposite, a shrewish wife:\nA continual dropping in a rainy day\nAnd a contentious woman are alike.\nThus we have already translated (vol. i. p. 9), where, when treating of the manifold forms of parabolic proverbs, we began with this least poetic, but at the same time remarked that Pro 27:15 and Pro 27:16 are connected, forming a tetrastich, which is certainly the case according to the text here lying before us. In Pro 27:15, Pro 19:13 is expanded into a distich, and made a complete verse. Regarding \u05d3\u05bc\u05dc\u05e3 \u05d8\u05d5\u05e8\u05d3, vid., the explanation there given. The noun \u05e1\u05d2\u05e8\u05d9\u05e8, which the Syr. translates by magyaa', but the Targumist retains, because it is in common use in the post-bibl. Heb. (Bereschith rabba, c. 1) and the Jewish Aramaic, signifies violent rain, after the Jewish interpreters, because then the people remain shut up in their houses; more correctly, perhaps, from the unbroken continuousness and thickness (cf. the Arab. insajara, to go behind each other in close column) with which the rain pours down. Regarding \u05de\u05d3\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd, Ker\u0131\u0302 \u05de\u05d3\u05d9\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd, vid., Pro 6:14; the genit. connection of '\u05d0\u05d5\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea \u05de we have already at Pro 21:9. The form \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05d4 is doubtful. If accented, with Lwenstein and others, as Milra, then we would have a Nithkatal before us, as at Num 1:47, or a Hothkatal - a passive form of the Kal, the existence of which, however, is not fully established. Rather this word is to be regarded as \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05d4 (Nithpa. as Deu 21:8; Eze 23:48) without the dagesh, and lengthened; the form of the word \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05d4, as found in the Cod. Jaman., aims at this. But the form \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05d4 is better established, e.g., by Cod. 1294, as Milel. Kimchi, Michlol 131a (cf. Ewald, 132c), regards it as a form without the dagesh, made up the Niph. and Hithpa., leaving the penultima toning unexplained. Bertheau regards it as a voluntative: let us compare (as \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05e2\u05d4, Isa 41:23); but as he himself says, the reflexive form does not accord with this sense. Hitzig has adopted the right explanation (cf. Olshausen, 275, and Bttcher, 1072, who, however, registers it at random as an Ephraimitism). \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05d4 is a Niphal, with a transposition of consonants for \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05ea\u05d4, since \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05ea\u05d4 passes over into \u05e0\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05d4. Such is now the genus in the arrangement; the Milra form would be as masc. syntactically inaccurate. \"The finite following the subjects is regulated by the gender and number of that which is next before it, as at Sa2 3:22; Sa2 20:20; Psa 55:6; Job 19:15\" (Hitzig).\nThis verse stands in close connection with the preceding, for it speaks of the contentious woman:\nHe that restraineth her restraineth the wind,\nAnd oil meeteth his right hand.\nThe connection of the plur. subject \u05e6\u05e4\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4 = quicunque eam cohibet, with a sing. predicate, is not to be disputed (vid., Pro 3:18 and Pro 28:16, Cheth\u0131\u0302b); but can \u05e6\u05e4\u05df gain from the meaning of preserving, laying up, also the meanings of keeping, of confining, and shutting up? - for these meanings we have \u05db\u05bc\u05dc\u05d0 and \u05e2\u05e6\u05e8 (cf. \u05e6\u05e8\u05e8, Pro 30:4). In 16b it lies nearer to see in \u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05e0\u05d5 the object of the clause (oil meeteth his right hand) than the subject (his right hand meeteth oil), for the gender of \u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05df directs to \u05d9\u05d3 (e.g., Eze 15:6; cf. 6a, where \u05e0\u05d0\u05d3\u05bc\u05e8\u05d9 is as to gender indifferent): it is fem., while on the contrary \u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05df is generally masc. (cf. Sol 1:3). There is no reason for regarding \u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05e0\u05d5 as an adverbial accus. (he meets oil with his right hand), or, with Hitzig, as a second subject (he meets oil, his right hand); the latter, in the order of the words lying before us, is not at all possible. We suppose that \u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0, as at Gen 49:1, is equivalent to \u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d4 (Ewald, 116c), for the explanation oleum dexterae ejus praeconem agit (Cocceius, Schultens) does not explain, but only darkens: and oleum dexter su legit, i.e., colligit (Fleischer), is based on an untenable use of the word. As one may say of person to person, \u05e7\u05e8\u05da, occurrit tibi, Num 25:18, so also \u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0 (\u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d4), of a thing that meets a man or one of his members; and if we compare \u05dc\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0\u05ea and \u05e7\u05e8\u05d9, then for 16b the meaning is possible: oil meets his right hand; the quarrelsome woman is like oil that cannot be held in the hand, which struggles against that which holds it, for it always glides out of the hand. Thus also Luther: \"and seeks to hold oil with his hand,\" as if he read \u05d9\u05e7\u05de\u05e5. In fact, this word was more commonly used as the expression of untenableness than the colourless and singular word \u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0, which, besides, is so ambiguous, that none of the old translators has thought on any other \u05e7\u05e8\u05d0 than that which signifies \"to call,\" \"to name.\" The Jewish interpreters also adhere to this nearest lying \u05e7\u05e8\u05d0, and, moreover, explain, as the Syr., Targ., Aquila, Symmachus, Jerome, and the Venet., \u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05df \u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05e0\u05d5, according to the accentuation as genit. connected, e.g., Rashi: he calls for oil to his right hand, viz., as the means of purification from leprosy, Lev 8:14 [Lev 14:16]; and Aben Ezra: even when he calls for oil to his right hand, i.e., would move them to silence with the precious anointing oil. Perhaps Pro 27:16 was originally an independent proverb as follows:\n\u05e6\u05e4\u05e0\u05d9 \u05d4\u05d5\u05df \u05e6\u05e4\u05df \u05e8\u05d5\u05d7\n\u05d5\u05e9\u05de\u05df \u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05e0\u05d5 \u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0\nHe who layeth up riches in store layeth up the wind,\nAnd he nameth them the fat of his right hand;\ni.e., he sees in them that which makes his right hand fat and strong (\u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05df, as at Psa 109:24, opp. Zac 11:17; cf. \u05d1\u05bc\u05de\u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05e0\u05bc\u05d9\u05d5, Isa 10:16, and regarding \u1f18\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03cd\u03bd, the Phoenician god of health, at Isa 59:10), and yet it is only the wind, i.e., something that is worthless and transient, which he stored up (\u05e6\u05e4\u05df, as at Pro 13:22, and in \u05de\u05e6\u05e4\u05bc\u05e0\u05d9\u05d5, Obad. Oba 1:6). \u05d4\u05d5\u05df is used as it frequently occurs in the Book of Proverbs, e.g., Pro 11:4, and the whole proverb expresses by another figure the same as Pro 18:11. The fact that \u05e6\u05e4\u05d5\u05df (\u05e8\u05d5\u05d7), Pro 25:23, and as a contrast thereto in the compass \u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05df (the south), hovered before the poet, may not have been without its influence on the choice of the words and expression here.\nThis proverb expresses the influence arising from the intercourse of man with man:\nIron is sharpened by iron,\nAnd a man may sharpen the appearance of another.\nWhen the Masora reads \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3, Ewald remarks, it interprets the word as denoting \"at the same time,\" and the further meaning of the proverb must then accord therewith. Accordingly he translates: \"iron together with iron! and one together with the face of another!\" But then the prep. \u05d1 or \u05e2\u05dd is wanting after the second \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 - for \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 is, in spite of Ewald, 217h, never a prep. - and the \"face,\" 17b, would be a perplexing superfluity. Hitzig already replies, but without doing homage to the traditional text-punctuation, that such a violence to the use of language, and such a darkening of the thought, is not at all to be accepted. He suggests four ways of interpreting \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3: (1) the adverb \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3, united, properly (taken accusat.) union; (2) \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3, Psa 86:11, imper. of the Piel \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3, unite; (3) \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3\u05bc, Job 3:6, jussive of the Kal \u05d7\u05d3\u05d4, gaudeat; and (4) as Kimchi, in Michlol 126a, jussive of the Kal \u05d7\u05d3\u05d4 (= \u05d7\u05d3\u05d3) acuere, after the form \u05ea\u05d7\u05d6, Mic 4:11. \u05d5\u05d9\u05bc\u05d7\u05e5, Gen 32:8, etc. in p. \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3, after the form \u05d0\u05d7\u05d6, Job 23:9. \u05d5\u05d9\u05bc\u05d7\u05dc, Kg2 1:2 (= \u05d5\u05d9\u05bc\u05d7\u05dc\u05d0, Ch2 16:12). If we take \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 with \u05d1\u05bc\u05e8\u05d6\u05dc, then it is priori to be supposed that in \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 the idea of sharpening lies; in the Arab. iron is simply called hadyda = \u05d7\u05d3\u05d5\u05bc\u05d3, that which is sharpened, sharp; and a current Arab. proverb says: al\u1e25adyd bal\u1e25adyd yuflah = ferrum ferro diffinditur (vid., Freytag under the word falah). But is the traditional text-punctuation thus understood to be rightly maintained? It may be easily changed in conformity with the meaning, but not so that with Bttcher we read \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 and \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3, the fut. Kal of \u05d7\u05d3\u05d3: \"iron sharpeneth itself on iron, and a man sharpeneth himself over against his neighbour\" - for \u05e4\u05e0\u05d9 after a verb to be understood actively, has to be regarded as the object - but since \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 is changed into \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 (fut. Hiph. of \u05d7\u05d3\u05d3), and \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 into \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 or \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 (fut. Hiph. of \u05d7\u05d3\u05d3, after the form \u05d0\u05d7\u05dc, incipiam, Deu 2:25, or \u05d0\u05d7\u05dc, profanabo, Eze 39:7; Num 30:3). The passive rendering of the idea 17a and the active of 17b thus more distinctly appear, and the unsuitable jussive forms are set aside: ferrum ferro exacuitur, et homo exacuit faciem amici sui (Jerome, Targ., the Venet.). But that is not necessary. As \u05d5\u05d9\u05bc\u05e2\u05dc may be the fut. of the Hiph. (he brought up) as well as of the Kal (he went up), so \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 may be regarded as fut. Kal, and \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 as fut. Hiph. Fleischer prefers to render \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 also as Hiph.: aciem exhibet, like \u05d9\u05e2\u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05e8, divitias acquirit, and the like; but the jussive is not favourable to this supposition of an intransitive (inwardly transitive) Hiph. It may indeed be said that the two jussives appear to be used, according to poetic licence, with the force of indicatives (cf. under Pro 12:26), but the repetition opposes it. Thus we explain: iron is sharpened [gewetzt, Luther uses this appropriate word] by iron (\u05d1 of the means, not of the object, which was rather to be expected in 17b after Pro 20:30), and a man whets \u05e4\u05e0\u05d9, the appearance, the deportment, the nature, and manner of the conduct of his neighbour. The proverb requires that the intercourse of man with man operate in the way of sharpening the manner and forming the habits and character; that one help another to culture and polish of manner, rub off his ruggedness, round his corners, as one has to make use of iron when he sharpens iron and seeks to make it bright. The jussive form is the oratorical form of the expression of that which is done, but also of that which is to be done.\nThe following three proverbs are connected with 17 in their similarity of form: -\n18 Whosoever watcheth the fig-tree will enjoy its fruit;\nAnd he that hath regard to his master attaineth to honour.\nThe first member is, as in Pro 27:17, only the means of contemplating the second; as faithful care of the tree has fruit for a reward, so faithful regard for one's master, honour; \u05e0\u05e6\u05e8 is used as at Isa 27:3, \u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05e8 as at Hos 4:10, etc. - the proverb is valid in the case of any kind of master up to the Lord of lords. The fig-tree presented itself, as Heidenheim remarks, as an appropriate figure; because in the course of several years' training it brings forth its fruit, which the language of the Mishna distinguishes as \u05e4\u05d2\u05d9\u05df, unripe, \u05d1\u05d5\u05d7\u05dc, half ripe, and \u05e6\u05de\u05dc, fully ripe. To fruit in the first line corresponds honour in the second, which the faithful and attentive servant attains unto first on the part of his master, and then also from society in general.\n19 As it is with water, face correspondeth to face,\nSo also the heart of man to man.\nThus the traditional text is to be translated; for on the supposition that \u05db\u05bc\u05de\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd must be used for \u05db\u05bc\u05d1\u05de\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd, yet it might not be translated: as in waters face corresponds to face (Jerome: quomodo in aquis resplendent vultus respicientium), because \u05db\u05bc (instar) is always only a prep. and never conj. subordinating to itself a whole sentence (vid., under Psa 38:14). But whether \u05db\u05bc\u05de\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd, \"like water,\" may be an abridgment of a sentence: \"like as it is with water,\" is a question, and the translation of the lxx (Syr., Targ., Arab.), \u1f65\u03c3\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1 \u03bf\u1f50\u03c7 \u1f45\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c0\u03c1\u03cc\u03c3\u03c9\u03c0\u03b1 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2, \u03ba.\u03c4.\u03bb., appears, according to Bttcher's ingenious conjecture, to have supposed \u05db\u05d0\u05e9\u05e8 \u05d1\u05de\u05d9\u05dd, from which the lxx derived \u05db\u05bc\u05d0\u05d9\u05df \u05d3\u05bc\u05de\u05d9\u05dd, sicut non pares. The thought is beautiful: as in the water-mirror each one beholds his own face (Luther: der Scheme = the shadow), so out of the heart of another each sees his own heart, i.e., he finds in another the dispositions and feelings of his own heart (Fleischer) - the face finds in water its reflection, and the heart of a man finds in man its echo; men are \u1f41\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9\u03bf\u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2, and it is a fortunate thing that their heart is capable of the same sympathetic feelings, so that one can pour into the heart of another that which fills and moves his own heart, and can there find agreement with it, and a re-echo. The expression with \u05dc is extensive: one corresponds to another, one belongs to another, is adapted to the other, turns to the other, so that the thought may be rendered in manifold ways: the divinely-ordained mutual relationship is always the ground-thought. This is wholly obliterated by Hitzig's conjecture \u05db\u05bc\u05de\u05d5\u05bc\u05dd, \"what a mole on the face is to the face, that is man's heart to man,\" i.e., the heart is the dark spot in man, his partie honteuse. But the Scripture nowhere speaks of the human heart after this manner, at least the Book of Proverbs, in which \u05dc\u05d1 frequently means directly the understanding. Far more intelligible and consistent is the conjecture of Mendel Stern, to which Abrahamsohn drew my attention: \u05db\u05bc\u05de\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd \u05d4\u05e4\u05bc\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd \u05dc\u05e4\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd, like water (viz., flowing water), which directs its course always forward, thus (is turned) the heart of man to man. This conjecture removes the syntactic harshness of the first member without changing the letters, and illustrates by a beautiful and excellent figure the natural impulse moving man to man. It appears, however, to us, in view of the lxx, more probable that \u05db\u05bc\u05de\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd is abbreviated from the original \u05db\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8 \u05d1\u05de\u05d9\u05dd (cf. Pro 24:29).\nThe following proverb has, in common with the preceding, the catchword \u05d4\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd, and the emphatic repetition of the same expression:\n20 The under-world and hell are not satisfied,\nAnd the eyes of man are not satisfied.\nA Ker\u0131\u0302 \u05d5\u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05d5\u05df is here erroneously noted by Lwenstein, Stuart, and others. The Ker\u0131\u0302 to \u05d5\u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05bc\u05d4 is here \u05d5\u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5, which secures the right utterance of the ending, and is altogether wanting\n(Note: In Gesen. Lex. this \u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05d4 stands to the present day under \u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05d4.)\nin many MSS (e.g., Cod. Jaman). The stripping off of the \u05df from the ending \u05d5\u05df is common in the names of persons and places (e.g., \u05e9\u05c1\u05dc\u05de\u05d4, lxx \u03a3\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03bc\u03ce\u03bd and \u05e9\u05c1\u05dc\u05d4); we write at pleasure either ow or oh (e.g., \u05de\u05d2\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5), Olsh. 215g. \u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05bc\u05d4 (\u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5) of the nature of a proper name, is already found in its full form \u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5\u05df at Pro 15:11, along with \u05e9\u05c1\u05d0\u05d5\u05dc; the two synonyms are, as was there shown, not wholly alike in the idea they present, as the underworld and realm of death, but are related to each other almost the same as Hades and Gehenna; \u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05d5\u05df is what is called\n(Note: Vid., Frankel, Zu dem Targum der Propheten (1872), p. 25.)\nin the Jonathan-Targum \u05d1\u05bc\u05d9\u05ea \u05d0\u05d1\u05d3\u05bc\u05e0\u05d0, the place of destruction, i.e., of the second death (\u05de\u05d5\u05ea\u05d0 \u05ea\u05e0\u05d9\u05e0\u05d0). The proverb places Hades and Hell on the one side, and the eyes of man on the other, on the same line in respect of their insatiableness. To this Fleischer adds the remark: cf. the Arab. al'ayn l'a taml'aha all'a altrab, nothing fills the eyes of man but at last the dust of the grave - a strikingly beautiful expression! If the dust of the grave fills the open eyes, then they are full - fearful irony! The eye is the instrument of seeing, and consequently in so far as it always looks out after and farther, it is the instrument and the representation of human covetousness. The eye is filled, is satisfied, is equivalent to: human covetousness is appeased. But first \"the desire of the eye,\" Jo1 2:16, is meant in the proper sense. The eyes of men are not satisfied in looking and contemplating that which is attractive and new, and no command is more difficult to be fulfilled than that in Isa 33:15, \"...that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.\" There is therefore no more inexhaustible means, impiae sepculationis, than the desire of the eyes.\nThere follow here two proverbs which have in common with each other the figures of the crucible and the mortar:\n21 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,\nAnd a man according to the measure of his praise;\ni.e., silver and gold one values according to the result of the smelting crucible and the smelting furnace; but a man, according to the measure of public opinion, which presupposes that which is said in Pro 12:8, \"according to the measure of his wisdom is a man praised.\" \u05de\u05d4\u05dc\u05dc is not a \u1fe5\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03bf\u03bd like our Leumund [renown], but it is a graduated idea which denotes fame down to evil Lob [fame], which is only Lob [praise] per antiphrasin. Ewald otherwise: \"according to the measure of his glorying;\" or Hitzig better: \"according to the measure with which he praises himself,\" with the remark: \"\u05de\u05d4\u05dc\u05dc is not the act, the glorifying of self, but the object of the glorying (cf. \u05de\u05d1\u05d8\u05d7, \u05de\u05d3\u05d5\u05df), i.e., that in which he places his glory.\" Bttcher something further: \"one recognises him by that which he is generally wont to praise in himself and others, persons and things.\" Thus the proverb is to be understood; but in connection with Pro 12:8 it seems to us more probable that \u05d4\u05de\u05dc\u05dc is thought of as going forth from others, and not as from himself. In line first, Pro 17:3 is repeated; the second line there is conformable to the first, according to which it should be here said that the praise of a man is for him what the crucible and the furnace is for metal. The lxx, Syr., Targ., Jerome, and the Venet. read \u05dc\u05e4\u05d9 \u05de\u05d4\u05dc\u05dc\u05d5, and thereby obtain more concinnity. Luther accordingly translates:\nA man is tried by the mouth of his praise,\nAs silver in the crucible and gold in the furnace.\nOthers even think to interpret man as the subject examining, and so they vocalize the words. Thus e.g., Fleischer: Qualis est catinus argento et fornax auro, talis sit homo ori a quo laudatur, so that \"mouth of his praise\" is equivalent to the man who praises him with his mouth. But where, as here, the language relates to relative worth, the supposition for \u05dc\u05e4\u05d9, that it denotes, as at Pro 12:8, pro ratione, is tenable. And that the mouth of him who praises is a smelting crucible for him who is praised, or that the praised shall be a crucible for the mouth of him who praises, would be a wonderful comparison. The lxx has here also an additional distich which has no place in the Heb. text.\n22 Though thou bruise a fool in a mortar among grit with a pestle,\nYet would not his folly depart from him.\nAccording to the best accredited accentuations, \u05d0\u05dd\u05be\u05ea\u05bc\u05db\u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05e9\u05c1 has Illuj. and \u05d1\u05bc\u05de\u05bc\u05db\u05ea\u05bc\u05e9\u05c1 has Pazer, not Rebia, which would separate more than the Dechi, and disturb the sequence of the thoughts. The first line is long; the chief disjunctive in the sphere of the Athnach is Dechi of '\u05d4\u05e8, this disjoins more than the Pazer of '\u05d1\u05bc\u05dd, and this again more than the Legarmeh of \u05d0\u05ea\u05be\u05d4\u05d0\u05d5\u05d9\u05dc. The \u05d4 of \u05d4\u05e8\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea does not belong to the stem of the word (Hitzig), but is the article; \u05e8\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea (from \u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05e3, to shake, to break; according to Schultens, from \u05e8\u05e4\u05ea, to crumble, to cut in pieces, after the form \u05e7\u05d9\u05d8\u05d5\u05e8, which is improbable) are bruised grains of corn (peeled grain, grit), here they receive this name in the act of being bruised; rightly Aquila and Theodotion, \u1f10\u03bd \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u1ff3 \u1f10\u03bc\u03c0\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03c3\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd (grains of corn in the act of being pounded or bruised), and the Venet. \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd.\n(Note: The lxx translates \u1f10\u03bd \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u1ff3 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b5\u03b4\u03c1\u03af\u03bf\u03c5, and has thereby misled the Syr., and mediately the Targum.)\nIn \u05d1\u05bc\u05e2\u05dc\u05d9 (thus to be written after Michlol 43b, not \u05d1\u05bc\u05e2\u05dc\u05d9, as Heidenheim writes it without any authority) also the article is contained. \u05de\u05db\u05ea\u05e9\u05c1 is the vessel, and the \u05d1 of \u05d1\u05e2\u05dc\u05d9 is Beth instrumenti; \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9 (of lifting up for the purpose of bruising) is the club, pestle (Luther: stempffel = pounder); in the Mishna, Beza i. 5, this word denotes a pounder for the cutting out of flesh. The proverb interprets itself: folly has become to the fool as a second nature, and he is not to be delivered from it by the sternest discipline, the severest means that may be tried; it is not indeed his substance (Hitzig), but an inalienable accident of his substance.\nAn exhortation to rural industry, and particularly to the careful tending of cattle for breeding, forms the conclusion of the foregoing series of proverbs, in which we cannot always discern an intentional grouping. It is one of the Mashal-odes spoken of vol. i. p. 12. It consists of 11 = 4 + 7 lines.\n23 Give heed to the look of thy small cattle,\nBe considerate about the herds.\n24 For prosperity continues not for ever;\nAnd does the diadem continue from generation to generation?\n25 (But) the hay is gone, and the after-growth appears,\nAnd the grass of the mountains is gathered:\n26 Lambs serve to clothe thee,\nAnd goats are the price of a field.\n27 And there is plenty of goats' milk for thy nourishment,\nAnd for the nourishment of thy house,\nAnd subsistence for thy maidens.\nThe beginning directs to the fut., as is not common in these proverbs, vid., Pro 26:26. With \u05d9\u05d3\u05e2, to take knowledge, which is strengthened by the inf. intensivus, is interchanged \u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05ea \u05dc\u05d1, which means at Pro 24:32 to consider well, but here, to be careful regarding anything. \u05e6\u05d0\u05df is the small or little cattle, thus sheep and goats. Whether \u05dc\u05e2\u05d3\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd (here and at Isa 17:2) contains the article is questionable (Gesen. 35. 2 A), and, since the herds are called \u05d4\u05e2\u05d3\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd, is not probable; thus: direct thy attention to the herds, that is, to this, that thou hast herds. \u05e4\u05bc\u05e0\u05d9 is the external side in general; here, the appearance which the sheep present; thus their condition as seen externally. In Pro 27:24 I formerly regarded \u05e0\u05d6\u05e8 as a synonym of \u05d2\u05bc\u05d6, to be understood of the produce of wool, or, with Hitzig, of the shearing of the meadow, and thus the produce of the meadow. But this interpretation of the word is untenable, and Pro 27:25 provides for Pro 27:24, thus understood, no natural continuation of thought. That \u05d7\u05e1\u05df signifies a store, fulness of possessions, property, and abundance, has already been shown under Pro 15:6; but \u05e0\u05d6\u05e8 is always the mark of royal, and generally of princely dignity, and here denotes, per meton. signi pro re signata, that dignity itself. With the negative expression in 24a the interrogative in 24b is interchanged as at Job 40:9, with the implied negative answer; \u05d5\u05d0\u05dd, of an oath (\"and truly not,\" as at Isa 62:8), presents the same thought, but with a passionate colouring here unnecessary. Rightly Fleischer: \"ready money, moveable property, and on the other hand the highest positions of honour, are far more easily torn away from a man, and secure to him far less of quiet prosperity, than husbandry, viewed particularly with respect to the rearing of cattle.\" In other words: the possession of treasures and of a lofty place of power and of honour has not in itself the security of everlasting duration; but rural economy, and particularly the rearing of cattle, gives security for food and clothing. The Cheth\u0131\u0302b \u05dc\u05d3\u05d5\u05e8 \u05d3\u05d5\u05e8 is found, e.g., at Exo 3:15; the Ker\u0131\u0302 \u05dc\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5\u05e8 \u05d5\u05d3\u05d5\u05e8 substitutes the more usual form. If Pro 27:25 was an independent whole (Hitzig: grass vanishes and fresh green appears, etc.), then the meaning here and onward would be that in the sphere of husbandry it is otherwise than is said in Pro 27:24 : there that which is consumed renews itself, and there is an enlarging circulation. But this contrast to Pro 27:24 must be expressed and formed unambiguously. The connection is rather this, that Pro 27:23 commends the rearing of cattle, Pro 27:24 confirms it, and 25ff. discuss what real advantages, not dependent on the accidents of public and social life, it brings.\nI rejoice to agree with Fleischer in the opinion that the perfects of Pro 27:25 form a complex hypothetical antecedent to Pro 27:26 : Quum evanuerit gramen (sc. vetus) et apparuerint herbae recentes et collecta fuerint pabula montium, agni vestitui tuo (inservient) et pretium agri (sc. a te emendi) erunt hirci, i.e., then wilt thou nourish thy herds of sheep and goats with the grass on thy fields, and with the dried gathered hay; and these will yield for thee, partly immediately and partly by the money derived therefrom (viz., from the valuable goats not needed for the flocks), all that is needful for thy life. He also remarks, under \u05d2\u05bc\u05dc\u05d4, that it means to make a place void, empty (viz., to quit the place, vacuer la forteresse); hence to leave one's fatherland or home, to wander abroad; thus, rhetorically and poetically of things and possessions: to disappear. \u05d7\u05e6\u05d9\u05e8 (from \u05d7\u05e6\u05e8, to be green) is hay, and \u05d3\u05bc\u05e9\u05c1\u05d0 the after-growing second crop (after-grass); thus a meadow capable of being mowed a second time is though of. \u05e2\u05e9\u05bc\u05c2\u05d1\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd (with Dag. dirimens, as e.g., \u05e2\u05e0\u05bc\u05d1\u05d9 Deu 32:32) are the herbage of the mountains. The time when one proceeds to sheep-shearing, Pro 27:25 cannot intend to designate; it sets before us an interesting rural harvest scene, where, after a plentiful ingathering of hay, one sees the meadows again overspread with new grass (Ewald); but with us the shearing of sheep takes place in the month of May, when the warm season of the year is just at hand. The poet means in general to say, that when the hay is mown and now the herbage is grown up, and also the fodder from the mountains (Psa 106:20) has been gathered home, when thus the barns are filled with plenty, the husbandman is guaranteed against the future on all sides by his stock of cattle. \u05d7\u05dc\u05d1 (from \u05d7\u05dc\u05d1, Arab. halyb, with halab) is the usual metaplastic connecting form of \u05d7\u05dc\u05d1, milk. \u05d3\u05bc\u05d9 (from \u05d3\u05bc\u05d9, like \u05d7\u05d9 from \u05d7\u05d9), generally connected with the genitive of the person or thing, for which anything is sufficient (e.g., Pro 25:16, \u05d3\u05bc\u05d9\u05bc\u05da, to which Fleischer compares Arab. hasbuha, tassuha kifayuha), has here the genitive of the thing of which, or in which, one has enough. The complex subject-conception is limited by Rebia, and the governing \u05d3\u05bc\u05d9 has the subordinated disjunctive Legarmeh. \u05e2\u05d6\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd is a word of two genders (epicoenum), Gesen. 107, 1d. In \u05d5\u05d7\u05d9\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd the influence of the \u05dc still continues; one does not need to supply it meanwhile, since all that maintains and nourishes life can be called \u05d7\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd (vita = victus), e.g., Pro 3:22. The lxx translates \u05d1\u05bc\u05d9\u05ea\u05da by \u03c3\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1\u03c0\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, and omits (as also the Syr., but not the Syro-Hexap.) the last line as now superfluous; but that the maids attending to the cattle - by whom we particularly think of milkers - are especially mentioned, intentionally presents the figure of a well-ordered household, full of varied life and activity (Job 40:29).","title":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch: Proverbs: Proverbs Chapter 27","type":"page"}