The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 23

whoever feare him rooei-ves it if he prays in rizcd '7 crsion it is marked by the ndversatlve· fait~ (cf. Je.s. i. 5, sqq.) (Ve.tablus, Meroerus, ~oujuucti?~ "but," which, however, is not Dehtzsch). That tbe first sense, viz. that m the original. The LXX. has e. striking of beginning, is to be understood here ap- interpolation in this verse between the first peare from the parallel passage in oh. x. 10, e.nd second. cle.uses, which ie partly to.ken where the oorresponding word is n~i:iz;, (t'kil- from Ps. cxi. 10 (::Stlv<IT<s Iii a;,a8~ 1ra1T< .,-ois lath), "beginning," from the root~~~ (kka- 11'010U11W avrfw EVITl/foa 11, Eis e.~,, dpx¾i al1T8f/1T<o,s, "Aud a.good understanding have lal), "to begin ; " of. e.lso the LXX. apx'li, in this sense, and the initium of the Syriao o.11 they that do it: and reverence towo.rde e.nd Arabic Versions. All previous know- God is the beginning of knowledge").· Com- ledge to " the fear of the Lord" is oompe.ra- pare the Ambic Version, which has the same tive folly. He who would adve.nce in interpolation : Et intellectua bonus omnibus knowledge must first be imbued with a facientibus cam. Sana religio in Deu,m e11t reverenoe or holy fear of God. But fools initium prudentim. • despise wisdom a.nd instruction; or, accord- Vers.8-19.-1. First admonitory discourse. ing to the inverted order of the words in the Warning against enticements to robbery and origine.l, wisdom and instruction foo'ls de- bloodshed, spise, the associe.tion of ideas in the three words, "knowledge," "wisdom," and "in- Ver. 8.-My son, hear the instruction of thy struction," thus being more continuously sus- father. The transition· in this verse from tained. This arrangement links on the two what may be rego.rded as· ·filial obedience latter words with "the fear of the Lord," towards God to filie.l obedience towe.rds and so helps towards the elucide.tion of the parents is suggestive of the more.I Law. sense in which "fools" is to be understood. The same admonition, in a slightly altered form, occurs again in eh. vi., " My soil, Fools; □'?'.,~ (evilim), ploral of ~'ltl. (evil), keep thy father's commandment, o.nd for- from the ro~t ~~!;: ( aoo.l), " to be pe~~erse," so.ke not the law of thy mother" (cf. also here properly designates the incorrigible, as eh. iv. I). My son; 'P (b'ni) from p (ben), "o; in eh. =vii. 22, e.nd those who are unwilling son." . The form of address here adopted was to 1.--now God (Jer. iv. 22), and hence refuse that m common use by tee.chers towards nnd despise wisdom and salutary discipline, their pupils, and me.rks the.t superintending, those "who set at nonght all liis counsel, loving, and fatherly co.re and interest which nnd will none of his reproof." The word is the former felt in and towards the latl;er; opposed to the "prudent" ( eh. xii. 16) o.nd It occurs frequently in the intmductory section to the" wise" (eh. x. 14). Delitzsch under- (eh.ii.I; iii.1,21; iv.10,20; v.l; vi.l; vii.I), stands it o.s "thick, hard, ~tupid," from the and reappears again towards the close (eh. root at1al., coalescere, incrassari. Schultens xxiii. 15, 19, 26; xxiv. 13, 21; xxvii. 11) in uses 1rax,,s, equivalent to crassi pro stupidis, the teacher'saddre~s. 'fhemotherofLemuel to represent the original. Dunn takes it in uses it (eh. xxxi. 2) in the strictly po.rental the same sense as "gross or dull of under- sense. In other pWlsages of the OId Testa- standing." Fuerst, adopted by Wordsworth, ment the teacher, on the other hand, is repre- regards it in the sense of having no moral sented as a "father" (Judg. xvii. JO; Isa. stamina, from the root meaning '' to be slack, x. 12; 2 Kings ii. 21). We find the same weak, lax, or lazy." But none of these ex- relation assumed in the New Tes~rnent, planations seems, in my opinion, to coincide both by St. faul (1 Cor. iv. 15; Philem, 10; sufficiently with the evil and depmved Gnl. iv. 19) and by St. John (l John ii. 1; activity expressed in the verb " despise," v. 2); but 11nder the economy of the gospel which follows, and which describes the it has a deeper significe.nce thon hllre, ils conduct of this class. The LXX. renders poiuting to the "new birth," which, being the word or action by a.,uf3eis, equivalent to a later revelation, lies o~t~ide the scope of impii, "godless,'' ·• profane," and the Vulgate the moral teaching of the Old Testament by Biulti. Despise; 19 (bazu) is perfect, but dispensation. The instruction.(,r;m~, musar); is properly translated by the present, because as carrying with it the sense of disciplinnry the perfect here represents a condition long education (cf. LXX., ,rcu6,ta; Vulgnte, disci~ continued and still exieting(Gesenius, § 126); plina; see also ver. 2), and of the correc- cf. the Latin odi, memwii, etc. The LXX. tion with which it may be enforced (cf. eh, uses the future •{ov8•"'1<1oua-.v, i.e. they will xiii. 24; xxii. 15; xxiii. 13, 14), the writer set at nought; the Vulgate, the present attributes appropriately to the father, while • dapiciunt). The radical uieaning is most the milder torah, "law," ho uses of the mother l,Jl'Uba.bly contemptuous trampling under the (Delitzseh). Father; ',fhe no.ture of-the ex- teet (Ge..enine). Wiadom and instruction hortation convoyed in this verse requires l,;ce vcr. 2). The latter clause of this verse that we should ~nderste.nc;I. the terms "father" ie antitJ;eLical to t~ former, but the anti- e.nd "mother" in their naturo.l s11nse as clesig- ihesie b ol,scurely expressed. Iu the Autho- nalinl,l: the J?arents ot the persons addressed, OH. I. 1-33.] THE PROVERBS. 7