Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Proverbs Kabanata 6

The representation of the good doctrine is now personified, and becomes identified with it.

When thou walkest, it will guide thee;

When thou liest down, it will keep watch over thee;

And when thou wakest, it will talk with thee.

The subject is the doctrine of wisdom, with which the representation of wisdom herself is identified. The futures are not expressive of a wish or of an admonition, but of a promise; the form of the third clause shows this. Thus, and in the same succession as in the schema Deuteronomy 6:7, cf. Proverbs 11:19, are the three circumstances of the outward life distinguished: going, lying down, and rising up. The punctuation בּהתהלכך , found here and there, is Ben-Naphtali's variant; Ben-Asher and also the Textus rec. reject the Metheg in this case, vid., Baer's Metheg - Setzung, §28. The verb נחה , with its Hiph. in a strengthened Kal -signification, is more frequently found in the Psalms than in the Proverbs; the Arab. nh' shows that it properly signifies to direct ( dirigere ), to give direction, to move in a definite direction. שׁמר with על , to take into protection, we had already Proverbs 2:11; this author has favourite forms of expression, in the repetition of which he takes delight. With lying down, sleeping is associated. והקיצות is, as Psalms 139:18, the hypoth. perf., according to Ewald, §357a: et ut expergefactus es, illa te compellabit . Bertheau incorrectly: she will make thee thoughtful. But apart from the fact that there is no evidence of the existence of this Hiph. in the language of the Bible, the personification demands a clearer figure. שׂיח ( שׂוּח ) signifies mental speech and audible speech (Genesis 24:63, poet., in the Talmudic

(Note: The conjecture thrown out by Wetstein, that (Arab.) shykh is equivalent to משׂיח ( מסיח ), speaker, is untenable, since the verb shakh , to be old, a so-called munsarif , i.e., conjugated throughout, is used in all forms, and thus is certainly the root of the shykh .)

a common word); with ב , speaking concerning something ( fabulari de ), Psalms 69:13; with the accus., that which is said of a thing, Psalms 145:5, or the address, briefly for שׂיח ל , Job 12:8 (as מגּן with accus. Proverbs 4:9 = מגן ל ): when thou art awake, wisdom will forthwith enter into conversation with thee, and fill thy thoughts with right matter, and give to thy hands the right direction and consecration.

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Since in היא the idea of wisdom and of wholesome doctrine lie in one another, the author can proceed with proof:

For a lamp is the commandment, and instruction a light (Jerome et lex lux );

And a way of life, disciplinary reproofs.

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

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The section thus closes:

To keep thee from the vile woman,

From the flattery of the strange tongue.

Regarding the genitive connection אושׁת רע , a woman of a wicked character, vid., under Proverbs 2:14; and regarding the adjectival connection לשׁון נכריה , under Proverbs 6:17; the strange tongue is the tongue ( לשׁון ) of the strange (foreign) woman ( vid., p. 81), alluring with smooth words (Proverbs 2:16). Ewald, Bertheau: from her of a smooth tongue, the stranger, as Symm., Theod., ἀπὸ λειογλώσσου ξένης ; but חלקת is a substantive (Genesis 27:16), and as a fem. adject. form is without an example. Rather חלקת לשׁון is to be regarded as the first member and נכריה as the second of the st. constr., for the former constitutes one idea, and לשון on this account remains unabbreviated; cf. Psalms 68:22; Isaiah 28:1; but (1) this syntactical phenomenon is yet problematical, vid., Friedr. Philippi, Wesen und Ursprung des St. Constr. p. 17; and (2) the supposition of such an anomaly is here unnecessary.

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