The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 29

or Wiedom in eh. viii. mu~ be also pre- 6 is used to designate the nmple space dicated of her in the passage before us, in at the gates of Oriental cities (Gesenius), reference either to the hyposte.tio or opposite though here it seerns to refer rather to view. On the other hand, a large number "squares," large open spaces, not uncom- of expositore, de.ting from the earliest mon in Oriental cities-I sa.w one such o.t periode of the Christian Church down to Acleo-or it may refer to the broad crowcled the present time, see in Wisdom a distinct thoroughfares. The Syriac reading, in com- hypostasis, or person-the Lord Jesus Christ. pitis, gives a. different sense, e.s compitum, A fuller investigation of this subject will equivalent to "cross-roads." be seen in our remarks ou eh. viii. For Ver. 21.-She crieth in the chief place of the present we observe that Wisdom is concourse. The chief place is literally the essentially Divine. Her authority, her head (l!/1(,, rosh); here used figuratively for utterances, whether of promise, threat, scorn, the place where streets or roads branch nff or vengeance, are the e.uthority,'.the utter- in different directions, as in Ezek. xvi. 25, ances, of God. Crieth; rather, crieth loudly, " the beginning of streets," or " the head of or aloud. The Hebrew verb ranan (Jn) is the way;" oornp. Gen. ii. 10, where it is "to vibrate the voice," and conveys the idea used of the point at whidh the four streams or the clear loud ringing tones with which branched off; and the corresponding ex- proclamations were made; cf. the Vulge.te pression in eh. viii. 2, " She standeth in the prmdicare, and the Arabic clamitate, '' to cry top (rosh) of high places." Of concourse; with a loud voice." Fleischer remarks that ni•l:)h (homiyyoth) is the plural of the adjec- the Arabic rannan, which is allied to the tive, •z;i1n (homi); literally, '' those who are Hebrew verb, is used of a speaker who has making a noise," or" the tumultuous;" here, a clear piercing voice. In such a way does as in Isa. x.xii. 2 and 1 Kings i. 41, used Wisdom cry without when making her substantively for "boisterous, noisy places" address. She elevates her voice . that all (compare the Vulgate, in capite turbarum). may hear. The verb in the original is The variation in the LXX., "on high tazonnah, the feminine singular of ranan, walls," or "on the tops of the walls " ( ,,,,• and predicate to "Wisdom," according to lt,cpo,v Ii, -r••X•"'"• super summos muros), the rule that verbs in the singular are which is adopted also in the Chaldee, construed with plural nouns having a Syriac, and Arabic Versions, arises from singular signification, especially the pluralis reading nioin (khomoth), '' walls," for the ezcellentim (see Gesenius, • Grom.,' § 146. 2). Masoretio homiyyoth. In the openings of Without. yl,? (bakhuts) is here used ad- the gates. The opening (1"1]:1~, pethakh) is verbially, as in Gen. ix. 22, and signifies the opening of the gate, or the entro.nco "in the open places," i.e. abroad, without, by the gate (iJ1.~, shaar), i.e. of the city, as opposed to the space within the walls. the introitus portm of the Chaldee and The writer here begins his enumeration of Syrioc Versions. The openings of the- gates the five places wherein Wisdom preaches, would be thronged, as courts of jnstice were viz. (1) without, (2) in the streets, (3) in held at the gates (Dent. xvi. 18; 2 Sam. chief places of concourse, (4) in the opening xv. 2); business was carried on there, as of the gates, (5) in the city, all of which the selling e.ncl redemption of land (Gen. ore public, and thus indicate the publicity x.xiii. 10-16; Ruth iv. 1); markets were of her announcements (with these comp. eh. also held there (2 Kings vii. 1-18); ond the viii. I ; ix. 3). .She uttereth her voice; or, same localities were used for the councils cameth her voice to be heard; represented in of the state and conferences (Gen. :s:x.xiv. the Vulgate by dat vocem suam, ond in the 20; 2 Sam. iii. 27; 2 Chron. xviii. 9; Jer. LXX. by 'ff'app7111lav Ii-ye, (equivalent to" she xvii. 19; comp. eh. xx:s:i. 33, "Her husband observe!! free-spokenness "). The instru- is known in the 9ates"). In pince of the mentality whioh Wisdom uses in her publio expression, •• in the openings of the gates," prea,ching are the prophets and teachers the LXX. rends, 'E1rl 6, 1r6,\~1s liuva,noiv (Eoclus. xxiv. 33; Ziickler, Vatablus, Mer- ,rapelipe6e,," And at the gates of the mighty cerus). In the streets; literally, in the wide she sits "-nn interpolation which only pa.rti• spaces; the Hebrew, ni:ih, (r'khovoth), being, olly represents the sense of the original, and as in Gen. xxvi. 22, "wide spo.ces," nnd which is adopted in the Arabic. In the next corresponding to the """-a-re!a of the LXX.; clause, for "in the city" is substituted e1rl platem, Valgate. Tho snrne places are indi- Ii, 1r6"-a1s 1ro"-e"'s, "at the gates of the city." cated in Luke xiv. 21, where, in the parable The Vuli:a.te combines the separate clauses of the marrioge supper, the servants are of the original in one-in foribus portarum bidden to go out into the streets ("""-a.-rela,) urbis, "in the entrances and openings of and lane1 of the city. The word is con- the gates of the city." In the city (i'l/t, nected with the adjeotive rakhaTJ (:ir:i?), bair); i.e. in the city itself (so Aben Ezro, "broad,"."wide;" and in 2 Chron. xxxii. ap. Gejerus), as opposed to the entrance by  14 THE PROVERBS. , • I '