Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Proverbs Chapter 1

The general counsel of Proverbs 1:9 is here followed by a more special warning:

My son, if sinners entice thee

Consent thou not.

The בּני

(Note: The accent Pazer over the בּני has the force of Athnach.)

(my son) is emphatically repeated. The intensive from חטּאים (signifies men to whom sin has become a habit, thus vicious, wicked. פּתּה ( Pi. of פּתה , to open) is not denom., to make or wish to make a פּתי ; the meaning, to entice (harmonizing with πείθειν ), פּתּה obtains from the root-meaning of the Kal, for it is related to it as pandere ( januam ) to patere : to open, to make accessible, susceptible, namely to persuasion. The warning 10b is as brief as possible a call of alarm back from the abyss. In the form תּבא (from אבה , to agree to, to be willing, see Wetstein in Job, p. 349) the preformative א is wanting, as in תּמרוּ , 2 Samuel 19:14, cf. Psalms 139:20, Ges. §68, 2, and instead of תּבה (= תּאבה , 1 Kings 20:8) is vocalized not תּבא (cf. Proverbs 11:25), but after the Aram. תּבא (cf. יגלי ); see Genesis 26:29, and Comment. on Isaiah, p. 648; Gesen. §75, 17.

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After the men are described against whose enticements a warning is given forth, the warning is emphatically repeated, and is confirmed by a threefold reason:

My son! go not in the way with them.

Keep back thy foot from their path.

If בּדרך (in the way), taken alone, cannot be equivalent to בדרך אחד (in one way), so is אתּם (with them) to be regarded as its determination.

(Note: The Arab. grammarians regard this as half determination, and call it takhsys ; that אתּם has with them the force of a virtually coordinated attributive; while, according to the Arab. gram., it is also possible that בּדרך , “in one way,” is equivalent to on the common way, for in the indetermination sometimes there lies the conception not merely of âhad , but of weahad .)

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

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The first argument to enforce the warning:

For their feet run to the evil,

And hasten to shed blood.

That this is their object they make no secret (Proverbs 1:11.); but why is it that such an object as this should furnish no ground of warning against them, especially as on this beginning the stamp of that which is morally blamable is here impressed with לרע ? Besides, this circular movement of the thoughts is quite after the manner of this poet; and that Proverbs 1:16 is his style, Proverbs 6:18 shows. The want of this distich (Proverbs 1:16 = Romans 3:15) in lxx B. א . weighs heavier certainly than the presence of it in lxx A. (Procop., Syro-Hezap.), since the translation is not independent, but is transferred from Isaiah 59:7; but if for the first time, at a later period, it is supplied in the lxx, yet it has the appearance of an addition made to the Hebr. text from Isaiah 59:7 (Hitzig, Lagarde); cf. Comm. on Isaiah, 40-66. לשׁפּך is always pointed thus; for, as a regular rule, after ל as well as מ sa llew s the aspiration disappears; but in Ezekiel 17:17 בּשׁפּך is also found, and in this case (cf. at Psalms 40:15) the punctuation is thus inconsequent.

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The second argument in support of the warning.

For in vain is the net spread out

In the eyes of all (the winged) birds.

The interpretation conspersum est rete , namely, with corn as a bait, which was put into circulation by Rashi, is inadmissible; for as little as הזּה ( Hiph. of נזה ) can mean to strew, can זרה mean to spread. The object is always that which is scattered ( gestreut ), not that which is spread ( bestreut ). Thus, expansum est rete , but not from מזר , extendere , from which מזורה

(Note: The MS Masora remarks לית וחסר , and hence מזרה is written defectively in the Erfurt, 1, 2, 3, Frankf. 1294, in the edition of Norzi and elsewhere.)

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

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The causal conj. כּי (for) in Proverbs 1:16 and Proverbs 1:17 are coordinated; and there now follows, introduced by the conj. ו (“and”), a third reason for the warning:

And they lie in wait for their own blood,

They lay snares for their own lives.

The warning of Proverbs 1:16 is founded on the immorality of the conduct of the enticer; that of Proverbs 1:17 on the audaciousness of the seduction as such, and now on the self-destruction which the robber and murderer bring upon themselves: they wish to murder others, but, as the result shows, they only murder themselves. The expression is shaped after Proverbs 1:11, as if it were: They lay snares, as they themselves say, for the blood of others; but it is in reality for their own blood: they certainly lie in wait, as they say; but not, as they add, for the innocent, but for their own lives (Fl.). Instead of לדמם , there might be used לדמיהם , after Micah 7:2; but לנפשׁם would signify ipsis (post-biblical, לעצמם ), while לנפשׁתם leaves unobliterated the idea of the life: animis ipsorum ; for if the O.T. language seeks to express ipse in any other way than by the personal pronoun spoken emphatically, this is done by the addition of נפשׁ (Isaiah 53:11). המו was on this account necessary, because Proverbs 1:17 has another subject (cf. Psalms 63:10).

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An epiphonema:

Such is the lot of all who indulge in covetousness;

It takes away the life of its owner.

This language is formed after Job 8:13. Here, as there, in the word ארחות , the ideas of action and issue, manner of life and its result, are all combined. בּצע signifies properly that which is cut off, a piece, fragment broken off, then that which one breaks off and takes to himself - booty, gain, particularly unjust gain (Proverbs 28:16). בּצע בּצע is he who is greedy or covetous. The subject to יקּח is בּצע , covetousness, πλεονεξία (see Isaiah 57:17). As Hoses, Job 4:11, says of three other things that they taken away לב , the understanding ( νοῦς ), so here we are taught regarding unjust gain or covetousness, that it takes away נפשׁ , the life ( ψυχή ) ( לקח נפשׁ , to take away the life, 1 Kings 19:10; Psalms 31:14). בּעליו denotes not the possessor of unjust gain, but as an inward conception, like בעל אף , Proverbs 22:24, cf. Proverbs 23:2; Proverbs 24:8; Ecclesiastes 10:11, him of whom covetousness is the property. The sing. נפשׁ does not show that בּעליו is thought of as sing.; cf. Proverbs 22:23, Ps. 34:23; but according to Proverbs 3:27; Proverbs 16:22; Ecclesiastes 8:8, this is nevertheless probable, although the usage without the suffix is always בּעל בּצע , and not בּעלי (of plur. intens. בּעלים ).

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Looking to its form and vocalization, חכמות may be an Aramaizing abstract formation (Gesen.; Ew. 165, c; Olsh. 219, b); for although the forms אחות and גּלות are of a different origin, yet in רבּות and הוללות such abstract formations lie before us. The termination ûth is here, by the passing over of the u into the less obscure but more intensive o (cf. יהו in the beginning and middle of the word, and יהוּ יהו at the end of the word), raised to ôth , and thereby is brought near to the fem. plur. (cf. חכמות , Proverbs 14:1, sapientia , as our plur. of the neut. sapiens , חכמה ), approaching to the abstract. On the other hand, that חכמות is sing. of abstract signification, is not decisively denoted by its being joined to the plur. of the predicate (for תּרנּה here, as at Proverbs 8:3, is scarcely plur.; and if ראמות , Proverbs 24:7, is plur., חכמות as the numerical plur. may refer to the different sciences or departments of knowledge); but perhaps by this, that it interchanges with תּבוּנות , Psalms 49:4, cf. Proverbs 11:12; Proverbs 28:16, and that an abstract formation from חכמה (fem. of חכם , חכם ), which besides is not concrete, was unnecessary. Still less is חכמות = חכמת a singular, which has it in view to change חכמה into a proper name, for proof of which Hitzig refers to תּהומות , Psalms 78:15; the singular ending ôth without an abstract signification does not exist. After that Dietrich, in his Abhandl. 1846, has shown that the origin of the plur. proceeds not from separate calculation, but from comprehension,

(Note: In the Indo-Germanic languages the s of the plur. also probably proceeds from the prep. sa ( sam) = συν . See Schleicher, Compend. der vergl. Gram. §247.)

and that particularly also names denoting intellectual strength are frequently plur., which multiply the conception not externally but internally, there is no longer any justifiable doubt that חכמות signifies the all-comprehending, absolute, or, as Böttcher, §689, expresses it, the full personal wisdom. Since such intensive plurals are sometimes united with the plur. of the predicate, as e.g., the monotheistically interpreted Elohim, Genesis 35:7 (see l.c.), so תּרנּה may be plur. On the other hand, the idea that it is a forma mixta of תּרן (from רנן ) and תּרנה (Job 39:23) or תּרנּה , the final sound in ah opposes. It may, however, be the emphatic form of the 3rd fem. sing. of רנן ; for, that the Hebr. has such an emphatic form, corresponding to the Arab. taktubanna , is shown by these three examples (keeping out of view the suspicion of a corruption of the text, Olsh. p. 452), Judges 5:26; Job 17:16; Isaiah 28:3; cf. תּשׁלחנה , Obadiah 1:13 (see Caspari, l.c.), an example of the 2nd masc. sing. of this formation. רנן (with רנה ) is a word imitative of sound (Schallwort), used to denote “a clear-sounding, shrill voice (thence the Arab. rannan , of a speaker who has a clear, piercing voice); then the clear shrill sound of a string or chord of a bow, or the clear tinkle of the arrow in the quiver, and of the metal that has been struck” (Fl.). The meaning of רחבות is covered by plateae (Luke 14:21), wide places; and חוּץ , which elsewhere may mean that which is without, before the gates of the city and courts, here means the “open air,” in contradistinction to the inside of the houses.

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המיּות (plur. of הומי , the ground-form of הומה , from המי = המה ), “they who are making noise;” for the epithet is poetically used (Isaiah 22:2) as a substantive, crowded noisy streets or places. ראשׁ is the place from which on several sides streets go forth: cf. ras el - ain , the place where the well breaks forth; ras en - nahr , the place from which the stream divides itself; the sing. is meant distributively as little as at Proverbs 8:2. פּתח , if distinguished from שׁער (which also signifies cleft, breach), is the opening of the gate, the entrance by the gate. Four times the poet says that Wisdom goes forth preaching, and four times that she preaches publicly; the בּעיר used in five places implies that Wisdom preaches not in the field, before the few who there are met with, but in the city, which is full of people.

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The poet has now reached that part of his introduction where he makes use of the very words uttered by Wisdom:

How long, ye simple, will ye love simplicity,

And scorners delight in scorning,

And fools hate knowledge?

Three classes of men are here addressed: the פּתים , the simple, who, being accessible to seduction, are only too susceptible of evil; the לצים , mockers, i.e., free-thinkers (from לוּץ , Arab. luṣ , flectere, torquere , properly qui verbis obliquis utitur ); and the כּסילים , fools, i.e., the mentally imbecile and stupid (from כּסל , Arab. kasal , to be thick, coarse, indolent). The address to these passes immediately over into a declaration regarding them; cf. the same enallage, Proverbs 1:27. עד־מתי has the accent Mahpach, on account of the Pasek following; vid., Torath Emeth, p. 26. Intentionally, Wisdom addresses only the פתים , to whom she expects to find soonest access. Between the futt., which express the continuing love and hatred, stands the perf. חמדוּ , which expresses that in which the mockers found pleasure, that which was the object of their love. להם is the so-called dat. ethicus, which reflexively refers to that which is said to be the will and pleasure of the subject; as we say, “I am fond of this and that.” The form תּאהבוּ , Abulwalîd, Parchon, and Kimchi regard as Piel; but תּאהבוּ instead of תּאהבוּ would be a recompensatio of the virtual doubling, defacing the character of the Piel. Schultens regards it as a defectively written Paiël (in Syr.), but it is not proved that this conjugation exists in Hebr.; much rather תּאהבוּ is the only possible Kal form with תּאהבוּן without the pause, regularly formed from תּאהבוּ ( vid., Ewald, §193, a). The division by the accent Mercha - Mahpach of the two words תאהבו פתי is equal in value to the connecting of them by Makkeph; vid., Baer's Psalterium, p. x. In codd., and also in correct texts, תאהבו is written with the accent Galgal on the first syllable, as the servant of the Mercha - Mahpach. The Gaja is incorrectly here and there placed under the תּ .

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To the call to thoughtfulness which lies in the complaint “How long?” there follows the entreaty:

Turn ye at my reproof!

Behold! I would pour out my Spirit upon you,

I would make you to know my words.

23a is not a clause expressive of a wish, which with the particle expressive of a wish, which is wanting, would be תּשׁוּבוּ־נא , or according to Proverbs 23:1 and Proverbs 27:23 would be שׁוב תּשׁוּבוּ . The הנּה , introducing the principal clause, stamps 23a as the conditional clause; the relation of the expressions is as Isaiah 26:10; Job 20:24. תּשׁוּבוּ

(Note: In the Hagiographa everywhere written plene, with exception of Job 17:10.)

is not equivalent to si convertamini , which would require תּפנוּ , but to si revertamini ; but לתוכהתּי

(Note: The Metheg belongs to the ת , under which it should be placed (and not to the ל ), as the commencing sound of the second syllable before the tone-syllable; cf. Proverbs 1:25.)

does not therefore mean at my reproof, i.e., in consequence of it (Hitzig, after Numbers 16:34), but it is a constructio praegnans: turning and placing yourselves under my reproof. With תוכחת there is supposed an ἔλεγχος (lxx, Symm.): bringing proof, conviction, punishment. If they, leaving their hitherto accustomed way, permit themselves to be warned against their wickedness, then would Wisdom cause her words to flow forth to them, i.e., would without reserve disclose and communicate to them her spirit, cause them to know (namely by experience) her words. הבּיע (from נבע , R. נב ; vid., Genesis, p. 635) is a common figurative word, expressive of the free pouring forth of thoughts and words, for the mouth is conceived of as a fountain (cf. Proverbs 18:4 with Matthew 12:34), and the ῥῆσις ( vid., lxx) as ῥεῦσις ; only here it has the Spirit as object, but parallel with דּברי , thus the Spirit as the active power of the words, which, if the Spirit expresses Himself in them, are πνεῦμα καὶ ζωή , John 6:63. The addresses of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs touch closely upon the discourses of the Lord in the Logos-Gospel. Wisdom appears here as the fountain of the words of salvation for men; and these words of salvation are related to her, just as the λόγοι to the divine λόγος expressing Himself therein.

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