The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 19

fj&.Xl\w, " to set or place side by side"), tho Amhic, "to judge" (Gesenius?,; or (2) lit.enlly, a placing beside, or comparison, "tho fixing of a thing for cognition, ' derived than by ,rapo,µ.[a., '' a byword," or "a trite from the Arabie equivalent of the Hehrow WRyside saying," though in the Greek of o::ii;i, ns before, which signifies "to fasten" the synoptic Gospels ..-apo,µ.ia is equivalent (Ziickler), or "compaotness," from the same to ,rapa{Jo>..-1,. The English word "proverb" root as before, "to be firm, or olosed." It is insufficiently renders the wider scope of also variously defined (1) as "insight into meaning con,eyed in the Hebrew mashal, that upright dealing which pleases God-a and is not quite Rccumtcly rendered here, koowled,ge of the right way which is to be since of proverbs in our ordinary significa- followed before God, and of the WJ.'.Ong one tion of that word there are comparatively which is to be shunned" (Zookler); (2) as few in this collection. The Hebrew word "piety towards God," as in Job xxviii. 28 here n1cans "maxims," '' aphorisms,', '' wise (Gesenius); (3) as" the knowledge of things counsels." Of Solomon. Most modem com- in their being and in the reality of their mentators (Delitzsch, Zockler, Fuerst, existence" (Delitzsch). The word is trans- Stuart, Plumptre, etc.), while attributing, lated in the LXX. by o-o,pla, and in the in a great.er or less rlcgree, the authorship Vulgate by sapientia. The Hebrew kho1,h- of the book to Solomon, regard the insertion mah and the Greek o-o,p(a so far agree as of his name in the title as indicating rather philosophioal terms in that the end of ea.eh that he is the dominant ~pirit among those is the same, viz. the striving after objeQtive wise men of his age, some of whose sayings wisdom, the moral fitness of things ; but the are here incorporated with his own. King character of the former differs from that of Israel, as forming the second hemistich of the latter in being distinctly religious. of the verse, goes with "Solomon," and not The beginning and the end of the kholch- "Dand." This is indicated in the Authorized mah, wisdom, is God (of. ver. 7). Wisdom, Version by the position o[ the comma. The then, is not the merely scientific know- Arabic Version omits allusion to David, and ledge, or moral philosophy, but knowl~dge reads, "Proverbia., nempe documenta. Sa~o- 1<u' i(ox,\v, i.e. religious knowledge or monis sapientis, qui regna.vit super fihos piety towards God ; i.e. an appreciation of IsraeL" The proverbial or parabolic form what God requires of us and what we con- of teaching was a recognized mode of in- versely owe to God. "Sapientia est de struction among the Hebrews, and in the divinis" (Lyra). Wisdom will, of course, Christian Church is recommended by St. carry with it the notions of knowledge and. Clement of Alexandria (' Strom.,' lib. 11, insight. Instruction. As the preceding '\'\'Ord init.). represents wisdom in its intellectual concep- Ver. 2.-To lmowwisdom and instruotion. tion, and has rather a theoretical character, In this verse we have a statement of the first so" instruction," Hebrew, ,~1p (musar), re- general aim or object of the Proverbs. "To presents it on its practical side, and as such know" (np-:i~, 1,a,d,aath) is somewhat in- is its practical complement. The Hebrew m'UBar signifies properly "chastisement," definite in the Authorized Version, and from the root yasar (i!)~), "to correct,•~ or might be more accurately rendered, "from which men may know" (De Wette, Noyes); " chastise," and hence education, moral training: and hence In the LXX. it is cf. unde scias (Munsterus). The 1, which is rendered by ,ra,3ei'a, which means both the here prefixed to the infinitive, as in vers. 2, process of education (cf. Plato, 'Repub.,' 3, and G gives the clause a final character, 376, E.; Arist., 'Pol.,' 8. 3) and its result and th~s points out the object which the as learning (Plato, ' Prob.,' 327, D.). The teachin"' o[ the Proverbs has in view. The V ulgate has discipli11a, In relation to teaching is viewed from the standpoint of wisdom, it is antecedent to it; i.e. to know the learner, and hence what is indicated wisdom truly we must first become. ~- here is not the imparting of knowledge, but quainted with instruction, and hence it 18 the reception or appropriation thereof on the a preparatory step to the knowledge of part of the learner. Schultens states that wisdom, though here it is stated rat~er the radical meaning of npJ (daath) is the objectively. The worCUI, "wisdom and in- reception of knowledge into one's self. struction " are found in exactly the same Wisdom. It will he necessary to go rather collocati~n in eh. iv. 13 and xxiii. 23. In fully into this word here on its first _appear- its strictly disciplinary sense, "instruction" ance in the text. The Hebrew lB i1?;io occurs in eh. iii. 11, with which comp. Heh. (lc/wkhmah). Wisdom is m~ntioned first, xii. 5. Holden takes this word as "moral because it is the end to which all know- discipline " in the highest sense. To per- ledge an_d instruction tend. The funda- ceive the words of understanding; literally, meu tal conception of the word is variously tc diBcern the wordB of diBcemment ; i.e. "to repreaented aa either (1) the "power of judg- comprehend the utterances which proceed ing," derivc,d from c;,o, "to he wise,'' from from intelligence, and give expression to err. r. 1-83.) THE PROVERBS. 3