The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 25

lent in the ago of Solomon, viz. the presence the pit (,i:i ','Jii•, yOTile vOT); i.e. the dead. of bands of robbers, or be.nditti, who dis- The phrase also occurs in Ps. xxviii. J ; turbed the security and internal pe11,C0 of xxx. 4; lxxxviii. 4; cxliii. 7; Isa. xxxviii. the country. In the New Testament the 18). The pit (ii:i, vOT); or, lhe •epulchre, samo state of things continued, and is the receptacle of the dead, is here synonymotlli alluded to by our Lord in tho parable of with aheol. The LXX. substitutes for the the man who fell among thieves. latter part of the verse, Ka! &pwµ.,v airroii -r¾• Ver. 12.-Let us swallow them up alive µ11-f,µ7111 b, ,yijs, " And let us remove his as the grave. A continuation of ver. 11, memory from the earth." The robbers, by expanding the idea of bloodshed ending in drawing a comparison between themselves murder, e.nd showing the determination of and He.des and the grave, which consign the sinners to proceed to the most violent to silence all who are put therein. imply means to effect their covetous ends. The their own security against detection.. They enticement here put before youth is t&e will so utterly destroy tneir victims that courage and boldness of their expfoits none will be left to tell the tale (see Musset, (Wardll!.w). The order of the words in the in loc.). This, we know, is a fancied, and at original is, "Let us swallow them up, as the the best only a temporary, security. grave, living," which sufficiently indicates the meaning of the passage. Alive; o•:ri Ver. 13.-We shall :find all precious sub- stance, This verse carries on the proposal (khayyim), i.e. "the living," refers to the of tbe sinners one step further, and puts pronominal suffix in 0)17:;i~ (niv'laem), as in forward a third enticement, viz. that of the the Authorized Version and Ziickler (cf. Ps. profit of crime, or the prospect of immediate Iv. 15; cxxiv. 3). Umbreit and Hitzig are riches, before youth to join in crime. A grammntically incorrect in connecting ',iN\"? short cut to wealth, and to tbe acquirement (kish'ol) "as the gmve," with "the living," of that which costs others long years of and translating "like the pit (swallows) steady application and carefulness, is a strong that wLich lives." The ? (ki) with a sub- inducement (Wardlaw). We shall find; stantive, as here in kish'o~ is a preposition, NJ'?l (nim'tza), from N¥i;l (inatza), properly and not e. conjunction (see Gesenius, 'Lexi- "to reach to," and "to find," in the sense of con '). It denotes a kind of resemble.nee, "to come upon;" cf. Latin invenio. Sub- but does not introduce a co-ordinate sentence. stance (Ji;,, hon); i.e. substance in the sense The allusion is undoubtedly in the teacher's of riches. The radical meaning of p;i (hun), mind to the fate of Korab and his company from which it is derived, is the same as in (Numb. xvi. 30-33), and as in that case the Arabic word, "to be light, easy, to be "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed in easy circumstances, and BO to be rich " them up " in the flush of life, so here the (Gesenins). In its abstract serue, hoo, "sub- robbers say that they will as suddenly and stance," means ease, comfort, and concretely effectively destroy their victims. l1~~ (dala); riches which bring e.bout that result (see from which niv'laem, in a figurative sense, also Fleischer, as quoted by Delitzsch); cf. means'' to destroy utterly" (Gesenius). The the LXX. l<Tij<r1s, i.e. collectively, possessions, change from the singular, "the innocent" property. The Piscatoria Version, for "pre- on~, l'naki), to the plural in "let us swallow cious subst.ance," ree.dsdi-uitias, ''riches." Pre- them up," is noticeable. Like the pit (',iN!!/;;>, cious; ,R~ (yakaT), properly" heavy," is found kish'ol); litera.lly, like Sheol, or Had68, the with Ji;, (hon), "Bubst.ance," in eh. xii. 27 great subterranean cavity or world of the and xxiv. 4. The collocation of the idea.a of dead. The all-devouring and insatiable lightness and heaviness in these two words character of sheol is described in eh. x.xvii. is striking, but we need not necessarily 20, where 1.he Authorized Version transle.tes suppose that any oxymoron is intended, us "Hell ( sl,eol) e.nd destruction are never full," Schultens. Such combinations occur in other e.nd again in eh. x.xx. 15, where it (sheol, languages, and reside more in the re.dicul Authorized Version, "the grave") is classed meanings of the words than in the minu or with the four things that are never satisfied. intention of the writer or speaker. We shall Vulgate, infern1L8; LX.X., ¥B11s. And whole, fill our houses with spoil; i.e. they promise as those that go down into the pit. The not only finding, but full possession (Gejerus, p9,ro.llelism of ideas requires that the word MuEet). Spoil; ',7'1j (shalal), from ',~~ "whole" (D'l;>'t;il:1, t'mimim) should be under- (shalal), same as the Arabic verb "to dmw," Btood of those physically whole (see Mercerus, and hence "to strip off'' (Gesenius); and Delitzsoh), and not in a more.I sense, e.s the equivalent to the Greek 0'1<v>..a (LXX.), the UfYtight (Luther, Grier, Holden, Plumptre). arms stripped off a sl11in enemy, spoils, anu The word is used in an ethice.l signification the Latin 8polia (Vulgate). Shalal is used in eh. ii. 21. Gesenius gives it the meaning genernlly, 11s here, for "prey," "booty" ( Goo. of "Bafe, Beoure." ThoBB that go down into xlu.. 27; Exod. xv. 9). Our gains, say  10 THE PROVERBS. [on. 1, 1-33.