Bibelkommentare

X.

3. A COLLECTION OF 375 SEPARATE VERSES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, MARKED BY A NEW HEADING (Proverbs 10:1 to Proverbs 22:16).

(1) The proverbs of Solomon.—The new title and different style of composition mark a new collection of proverbs. (See above, in the Introduction.) Each verse is distinct and complete in itself; but the collector appears to have endeavoured to throw together such as touched on the same subject. For instance, Proverbs 10:4-5, show why one man fails and another succeeds; Proverbs 10:6-7, how blessings and curses follow different persons. But the connection is sometimes so slight as to be difficult to catch.

(2) Treasures of wickedness—i.e., gained by wrong-doing.

Righteousness delivereth from death.—The Hebrew word translated “righteousness” has a much wider meaning than its English equivalent, which generally bears the sense only of deciding fairly, being especially applied to judges. But a “righteous” man in Hebrew is one who “renders to all their due,” whether to God, as Noah, who was “just and perfect” before Him (Genesis 6:9; Genesis 7:1; comp. Ecclesiastes 7:20), or to man. To his fellow-men his “justice” will show itself in liberality (Psalm 37:21), mercy (Proverbs 12:10), carefulness of speech (Proverbs 15:28), truthfulness (Proverbs 13:5), and wisdom (Proverbs 9:9). He is considerate to animals also (Proverbs 12:10). So in the sermon on the Mount our Lord (Matthew 6:1) says, “Take heed that ye do not your ‘righteousness’ [so the best MSS. read] before men;” and then specifies it under the heads of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In this passage it forms a contrast to riches gained by wrong, and therefore would seem particularly to signify “almsgiving,” as its Greek equivalent does in 2Corinthians 9:10. It is often: rendered so by the LXX., and it is the most usual sense of the word in late Hebrew. It is so interpreted also in Tobit 4:10; Tobit 12:9, where this passage is quoted. (Comp. Ecclesiasticus 3:30; Ecclesiasticus 29:12, and our Lord’s advice, Luke 16:9.) It “delivers from death,” as being a sign of the divine life within, which is “hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

(3) The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.—Comp. David’s experience (Psalm 37:25), and the great promise of our Lord to those who “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). (Comp. also below, Proverbs 13:25.)

He casteth away the substance of the wicked.—Rather, He repels (the word is used in 2Kings 4:27, of Gehazi “thrusting away” the Shunammite) the eager, passionate desire of the wicked. However much they long for it, they get it not, “because they ask amiss” (James 4:3).

(6) Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.—Curses and deeds of violence have proceeded from his mouth, but God frustrates them, they “return unto him void” (Isaiah 55:11), and, as it were, stop his mouth, reducing him to silence.

(8) A prating fool (‘evîl). (See above, on Proverbs 1:7.)

(9) Walketh surely.—He has no cause to fear lest anything to his discredit should come out, but can trust quietly in the Lord (Psalm 112:7); while he that goeth by crooked paths will be found out (Matthew 10:26), and the fear of this gives him perpetual uneasiness. Or the meaning may be that he will be “instructed,” i.e., punished by misfortune, as Jeremiah 31:19.

(10) Causeth sorrow to the person who is the butt of his ridicule, or against whom his malice is directed.

(11) Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.—If these words are to be taken as in Proverbs 10:6, then the first line must mean that the righteous man speaks to his own profit. But perhaps it will be better here to interpret the second line in the sense of “the mouth of the godless hideth violence,” i.e., it conceals under deceitful words the mischief intended for others. With God is the “well of life” (Psalm 36:9; Revelation 22:17); and in like manner the “mouth of the righteous” brings comfort and refreshment to the weary and heavy laden.