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In the introduction, chap. 1-9, there are larger sections of interconnected thoughts having one common aim. Even in Prov 6:1-19 there are manifestly three proverbial discourses distinguished from one another, shorter indeed, yet containing one fundamental thought. Such proverbs as are primarily designed to form one completed little whole of themselves, are not here to be met with. On the contrary, the Solomonic collection which now follows consists of pure distichs, for the most part antithetical, but at the same time going over all the forms of the technical proverb, as we have already shown; vid., p. 16. Accordingly the exposition must from this point onward renounce reproduced combinations of thought. The succession of proverbs here is nevertheless not one that is purely accidental or without thought; it is more than a happy accident when three of the same character stand together; the collector has connected together proverb with proverb according to certain common characteristics (Bertheau). And yet more than that: the mass separates itself into groups, not merely succeeding one another, but because a certain connection of ideas connects together a number of proverbs, in such a way that the succession is broken, and a new point of departure is arrived at (Hitzig). There is no comprehensive plan, such as Oetinger in his summary view of its contents supposes; the progressive unfolding follows no systematic scheme, but continuously wells forth. But that the editor, whom we take also to be the arranger of the contents of the book, did not throw them together by good chance, but in placing them together was guided by certain reasons, the very first proverb here shows, for it is chosen in conformity with the design of this book, which is specially dedicated to youth:

1 A wise son maketh glad his father;

A foolish son is his mother's grief.

One sees here quite distinctly (cf. Hosea 13:13) that חכם (from חכם , properly to be thick, stout, solid, as πυκνός = σοφός ) is primarily a practical and ethical conception. Similar proverbs are found further on, but consisting of synonymous parallel members, in which either the father both times represents the parents, as Proverbs 17:21; Proverbs 23:24, or father and mother are separated, each being named in different members, as Proverbs 17:25; Proverbs 23:25, and particularly Proverbs 15:20, where 20a = 1a of the above proverb. It is incorrect to say, with Hitzig, that this contrast draws the division after it: the division lies nearer in the synonymous distichs, and is there less liable to be misunderstood than in the antithetic. Thus, from this proverb before us, it might be concluded that grief on account of a befooled son going astray in bypaths, and not coming to the right way, falls principally on the mother, as (Sir. 3:9) is often the case in unfortunate marriages. The idea of the parents is in this way only separated, and the two members stand in suppletive interchangeable relationship. ישׂמּח is the middle of the clause, and is the usual form in connection; ישׂמּח is the pausal form. תּוּגה , from הוגה ( יגה ), has pass. û, as תּורה , act. ô. “The expression of the pred. 1b is like Proverbs 3:17; Proverbs 8:6; Proverbs 10:14.; cf. e.g., Arab. âlastaḳṣa furkat , oversharpening is dividing, i.e., effects it inquiries become or lead to separation (cf. our proverb, Allzuscharf macht scharig = too much sharpening makes full of notches); Burckhardt, Sprüchw. Nr. 337” (Fl.).

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There follows now a series of proverbs which place possessions and goods under a moral-religious point of view:

Treasures of wickedness bring no profit;

But righteousness delivers from death.

The lxx and Aquila translate ἀνόμους ( ἀσεβεῖς ). הועיל (to profit) with the accus. is possible, Isaiah 57:12, but אוצרות one does not use by itself; it requires a genitive designating it more closely. But also דּרשּׂיעא of the Targ., παρανόμων of Symmachus, fails; for the question still remains, to whom? Rightly Syr., Jerome, Theodotion, and the Quinta: ἀσεβείας , cf. Proverbs 4:17; Micah 4:10; Luke 16:9, μαμωνᾶς τῆς ἀδικίας . Treasures to which wickedness cleaves profit not, viz., him who has collected them through wickedness. On the contrary, righteousness saves from death (2b = Proverbs 11:4, where the parallelism makes it clear that death as a judgment is meant). In Deuteronomy 24:13 it had been already said that compassionate love is “righteousness before the Lord,” the cardinal virtue of the righteousness of life. Faith (Habakkuk 2:4) is its soul, and love its life. Therefore δικαιοσύνη and ἐεημοσύνη are interchangeable ideas; and it ought not to be an objection against the Apocrypha that it repeats the above proverb, ἐλεημοσύνη ἐκ θανάτου ῥύεται , Tob. 4:10; 12:9, Sir. 3:30; 29:12, for Daniel 4:24 also says the very same thing, and the thought is biblical, in so far as the giving of alms is understood to be not a dead work, but (Psalms 112:9) the life-activity of one who fears God, and of a mind believing in Him and resting in His word.

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Another proverb, the members of which stand in chiastic relation to those of the preceding:

Jahve does not suffer the soul of the righteous to hunger;

But the craving of the godless He disappointeth.

The thought is the same as Proverbs 13:25. There, as also at Proverbs 6:30, the soul is spoken of as the faculty of desire, and that after nourishment, for the lowest form of the life of the soul is the impulse to self-preservation. The parallel הוּה , in which lxx and Ar. erroneously find the meaning of חיּה , life, the Syr. Targ. the meaning of הון , possession, means the desire, without however being related to אוּה (Berth.); it is the Arab. hawan , from הוה , Arab. haway , which, from the fundamental meaning χαίνειν , hiare , to gape, yawn, signifies not only unrestrained driving along, and crashing overthrow (cf. Proverbs 11:6; Proverbs 19:13), but also the breaking forth, ferri in aliquid , whence הוּה , Arab. hawan , violent desire, in Hebr. generally (here and Psalms 52:9, Mich. Proverbs 7:3) of desire without limits and without restraint (cf. the plur. âhawâ , arbitrary actions, caprices); the meanings deduced from this important verbal stem (of which also הוה היה , accidere , and then esse , at least after the Arabic conception of speech, is an offshoot) are given by Fleischer under Job 37:6, and after Fleischer by Ethé, Schlafgemach der Phantasie, ii. p. 6f. The verb הדף signifies to push in the most manifold shades, here to push forth, repellere , as 2 Kings 4:27 (cf. Arab. ḥadhaf , to push off = to discharge); the fut. is invariably יהדּף , like יהגּה . God gives satisfaction to the soul of the righteous, viz., in granting blessings. The desire of the wicked He does not suffer to be accomplished; it may appear for a long time as if that which was aimed at was realized, but in the end God pushes it back, so that it remains at a distance, because contrary to Him. Instead of והות רשׁעים , some editions (Plantin 1566, Bragadin 1615) have והות בּגדים , but, in opposition to all decided testimony, only through a mistaken reference to Proverbs 11:6.

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There follow two proverbs which say how one man fails and another succeeds:

He becomes poor who bears a sluggish hand;

But the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

These three proverbs, Proverbs 19:15; Proverbs 12:24, Proverbs 12:27, are similar. From the last two it is seen that רמיּה is a subst., as also from Psalms 120:2. ( לשׁון רמיּה , from a crafty tongue) that it is an adject., and from Leviticus 14:15. (where כּף is fem.) that it may be at the same time an adject. here also. The masc. is רמי , like טרי to טריּה ot , but neither of these occur; “the fundamental idea is that of throwing oneself down lazily, when one with unbent muscles holds himself no longer erect and stretched, Arab. taramy ” (Fl.). The translation: deceitful balances (Löwenstein after Rashi), is contrary to biblical usage, which knows nothing of כף in this Mishnic meaning. But if כף is here regarded as fem., then it cannot be the subject (Jerome, egestatem operata est manus remissa ), since we read עשׂה , not עשׂה . But ראשׁ also is not suitable as the subject (lxx, Syr., Targ.), for poverty is called רישׁ , רישׁ , ראשׁ ; on the contrary, רשׁ , plur. רשׁים or ראשׁים , is used adjectively. Since now the adject. רשׁ , 1 Samuel 12:14, is also written ראשׁ , it may be translated: Poor is he who... (Bertheau); but we much rather expect the statement of that which happens to such an one, thus: Poor will he be... ראשׁ , 3 praet. = רשׁ , Psalms 34:11, with the same (grammatically incorrect) full writing as קאם , Hosea 10:14. In the conception of the subject, כף־רמיה , after Jeremiah 48:10, is interpreted as the accus. of the manner (Berth.: whoever works with sluggish hand); but since עשׂה רמיה (in another sense indeed: to practise cunning) is a common phrase, Psalms 52:4; Psalms 101:7, so also will כף־רמיה be regarded as the object: qui agit manum remissam , whoever carries or moves such a hand (Hitzig). In 4b working is placed opposite to bearing: the diligent hand makes rich, ditat or divitias parit ; but not for itself (Gesen. and others: becomes rich), but for him who bears it. The diligent man is called חרוּץ , from חרץ , to sharpen, for, as in ὀξύς , acer , sharpness is transferred to energy; the form is the same as הלּוּק , smooth (for the ā is unchangeable, because recompensative), a kindred form to קטול like חמוץ , and Arab. fâ'ûl as fashawsh , a boaster, wind-bag, either of active (as חנּוּן ) or (as חלוק , חרוץ , עמּוּד , שׁכּוּל ) of passive signification.

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There is now added a proverb which, thus standing at the beginning of the collection, and connecting itself with Proverbs 10:1, stamps on it the character of a book for youth:

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son;

But he that is sunk in sleep in the time of harvest is a son that causeth shame.

Von Hofmann (Schriftb. ii. 2. 403) rightly interprets בּן משׂכּיל and בּן מבישׁ , with Cocceius and others, as the subject, and not with Hitzig as predicate, for in nominal clauses the rule is to place the predicate before the subject; and since an accurate expression of the inverted relation would both times require הוא referring to the subject, so we here abide by the usual syntax: he that gathers in summer time is... Also the relation of the members of the sentence, Proverbs 19:26, is a parallel from which it is evident that the misguided son is called מבישׁ as causing shame, although in הבישׁ the idea to put to shame (= to act so that others are ashamed) and to act shamefully (disgracefully), as in השׂכיל the ideas to have insight and to act intelligently, lie into one another (cf. Proverbs 14:35); the root-meaning of השׂכיל is determined after שׂכל , which from שׂכל , complicare , designates the intellect as the faculty of intellectual configuration. בּושׁ , properly disturbari , proceeds from a similar conception as the Lat. confundi ( pudore ). קיץ and קציר fall together, for קיץ (from קוץ = qât , to be glowing hot) is just the time of the קציר ; vid., under Genesis 8:22. To the activity of a thoughtful ingathering, אגר , for a future store ( vid., Proverbs 6:7), stands opposed deep sleep, i.e., the state of one sunk in idleness. נרדּם means, as Schultens has already shown, somno penitus obrui, omni sensu obstructo et oppilato quasi , from רדם , to fill, to shut up, to conclude; the derivation (which has been adopted since Gesenius) from the Arab. word having the same sound, rdm , stridere , to shrill, to rattle (but not stertere , to snore), lies remote in the Niph., and also contradicts the usage of the word, according to which it designates a state in which all free activity is bound, and all reference to the external world is interrupted; cf. תּרדּמה , Proverbs 19:15, of dulness, apathy, somnolency in the train of slothfulness. The lxx has here one distich more than the Hebr. text.

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There now follow two proverbs regarding the blessings and the curses which come to men, and which flow forth from them. Here, however, as throughout, we take each proverb by itself, that it might not appear as if we had a tetrastich before us. The first of these two antithetic distichs is:

Blessings (come) on the head of the just;

But violence covereth the mouth of the godless.

Blessings are, without being distinguished, bestowed as well as prayed for from above. Regarding the undistinguished uses of לראשׁ (of a recompense of reward), בּראשׁ (of penal recompense), and על־ראשׁ (especially of punishment), vid., under Genesis 49:26. If we understand, with Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, Zöckler, and others, the two lines after Proverbs 10:11, Proverbs 19:28, cf. Proverbs 10:18: the mouth of the wicked covers (hides under a mask) violence, inasmuch as he speaks words of blessing while thoughts of malediction lurk behind them (Psalms 62:5), then we renounce the sharpness of the contrast. On the contrary, it is preserved if we interpret וּפי as object: the violence that has gone out from it covereth the mouth of the wicked, i.e., it falls back upon his foul mouth; or as Fleischer (and Oetinger almost the same) paraphrases it: the deeds of violence that have gone forth from them are given back to them in curses and maledictions, so that going back they stop, as it were, their mouth, they bring them to silence; for it is unnecessary to take פי synecdochically for פני (cf. e.g., Psalms 69:8), since in בּרכות 6a are perhaps chiefly meant blessings of thankful acknowledgment on the part of men, and the giving prominence to the mouth of the wicked from which nothing good proceeds is well accounted for. The parallels do not hinder us thus to explain, since parts of proverbs repeating themselves in the Book of Proverbs often show a change of the meaning ( vid., p. 24f.). Hitzig's conjecture, יכּסה (better יכסּה ), is unnecessary; for elsewhere we read, as here, that חמס (violence), jure talionis , covers, יכּסּה , the wicked, Habakkuk 2:17, or that he, using “violence,” therewith covers the whole of his external appearance, i.e., gives to it the branded impress of the unrighteousness he has done ( vid., Köhler under Malachi 2:16).

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Thus, as Proverbs 10:6 says how it goes with the righteous and the wicked in this life, so this verse tells how it fares with them after death:

The memory of the righteous remains in blessings,

And the name of the godless rots.

The tradition regarding the writing of זכר with five ( זכר ) or six points ( זכר ) is doubtful ( vid., Heidenheim in his ed. of the Pentateuch, Meôr Enajim, under Exodus 17:14); the Cod. 1294 and old printed copies have here זכר . Instead of לברכה , יברך might be used; the phrase היה לברכה (opp. היה לקללה , often used by Jeremiah), subordinate to the substantival clause, paraphrases the passive, for it expresses a growing to something, and thus the entrance into a state of endurance. The remembrance of the righteous endures after his death, for he is thought of with thankfulness ( צל '' ז = זכר צדיק לברכה , the usual appendix to the name of an honoured, beloved man who has died), because his works, rich in blessing, continue; the name of the godless, on the contrary, far from continuing fresh and green (Psalms 62:1-12:17) after his departure, becomes corrupt ( רקב , from רק , to be or to become thin, to dissolve in fine parts, tabescere ), like a worm-eaten decayed tree (Isaiah 40:20). The Talmud explains it thus, Joma 38b: foulness comes over their name, so that we call no one after their name. Also the idea suggests itself, that his name becomes corrupt, as it were, with his bones; the Mishnah, at least Ohaloth ii. 1, uses רקב of the dust of corruption.

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There follows now a series of proverbs in which reference to sins of the mouth and their contrary prevails:

He that is wise in heart receives precepts;

But he that is of a foolish mouth comes to ruin.

A חכם־לב , wise-hearted, as one whose heart is חכם , Proverbs 23:15; in a word, a נבון , a person of understanding or judgment, Proverbs 16:21. Such an one does not make his own knowledge the ne plus ultra , nor does he make his own will the noli me tangere ; but he takes commands, i.e., instructions directing or prohibiting, to which he willingly subordinates himself as the outflow of a higher knowledge and will, and by which he sets bounds and limits to himself. But a fool of the lips, i.e., a braggart blunderer, one pleasing himself with vain talk (Proverbs 14:23), falls prostrate, for he thinks that he knows all things better, and will take no pattern; but while he boasts himself from on high, suddenly all at once - for he offends against the fundamental principle of common life and of morality - he comes to lie low down on the ground. The Syr. and Targ. translate ילּבט by, he is caught (Bertheau, ensnared); Aquila, Vulgate, Luther, δαρήσεται , he is slain; Symmachus, βασανισθήσεται ; but all without any support in the usage of the language known to us. Theodotion, φυρήσεται , he is confounded, is not tenable; Joseph Kimchi, who after David Kimchi, under Hosea 4:14, appeals in support of this meaning ( ישׁתבשׁ , similarly Parchon: יתבלבל ) to the Arabic, seems to think on iltibâs , confusion. The demonstrable meanings of the verb לבט are the following: 1. To occasion trouble. Thus Mechilta, under Exodus 17:14, לבטוהו , one has imposed upon him trouble; Sifri, under Numbers 11:1, נתלבטנו , we are tired, according to which Rashi: he fatigues himself, but which fits neither to the subj. nor to the contrast, which is to be supposed. The same may be said of the meaning of the Syr. lbt , to drive on, to press, which without doubt accords with the former meaning of the word in the language of the Midrash. 2. In Arab. labaṭ (R. lab , vid., Wünsche's Hos. p. 172), to throw any one down to the earth, so that he falls with his whole body his whole length; the passive נלבט , to be thus thrown down by another, or to throw oneself thus down, figuratively of one who falls hopelessly into evil and destruction (Fl.). The Arabic verb is also used of the springing run of the animal ridden on (to gallop), and of the being lame (to hop), according to which in the Lex. the explanations, he hurries, or he wavers hither and thither, are offered by Kimchi ( Graec. Venet. πλανηθήσεται ). But the former of these explanations, corruit (= in calamitatem ruit ), placed much nearer by the Arabic, is confirmed by the lxx ὑποσκελισθήσεται , and by the Berêshith rabba, c. 52, where לבט is used in the sense to be ruined (= נכשׁל ). Hitzig changes the passive into the active: “he throws the offered לקח scornfully to the ground,” but the contrast does not require this. The wanton, arrogant boasting lies already in the designation of the subj. אויל שׂפתים ; and the sequel involves, as a consequence, the contrasted consequence of ready reception of the limitations and guidance of his own will by a higher.

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