The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 32

implies tbe.t Wisdom thinks fools no longer met with in the LXX., .-o,-yapovv; in the worthy of being Rddressed personally- Vulgate, igitur; and in the Syrino, ideo, " QuRsi stult.os indignos censunt ulteriori The truth here expressed is acoordant with alloquio" (Gejerus and Michaelis). The de- the tenor of the teaobing of the Scripture claration is the embodiment of the laughter (comp. eh. xiv. 14; xxii. 8; Job iv. 8; and scorn of ver. 26. The three verbs," they Isa. iii. 10; Gal. vi. 7, 8), 11nd with our daily shall call," "they shall seek," "they shall experience of God's moral government of find," occur in uncommon and emphatic the world (see Butler, 'Analogy,' po.rt i. forms in the origino.l. They are some eh. ii., ad fin.). '.fhis sentiment of retribu- out of the few instances wliere the future tive punishment o.lso found expression in terminations are inserted fully before the Terence, " Tute hoo intristi, tibi omne est pronominal snffix. I will not answer. The edendum" (' Phorm.,' 2. 1. 4). When we distress and anguish consequent upon their are punished, the blameworthiness lies not calamity and fear lead them to pray, but with God, but with us sinners (Wo.rdlaw), there will be no answer nor heed given to They shall be filled; rather, satiated, or sur- their cry. They are not heard, because feited; saturabuntur (V ulgate). The verb V~~ they do not cry rightly nor in the time of (shava) means not only "to fill," but "to be grace (Lapide). See the striking parallel satiated or cloyed" (cf. eh, xiv. 14; xxv. 16; t.o the tenor of this passage in Luke xiii. Ps. lxxxviii. 3; cxxili. 4). Michaelis re- 24-28. They shall seek me early ; i.e. dili- marks on this word, "Ad nauseam imple- gently. The verb "11:J~ (shakhar) is the de- buntur et comedent, ito. ut consiliorum nominative from the substantive "11:J~ (sha- suorum vehementer tandem, sed nimis sero, 1.ar), "the dawn, morning," and signifies ipsos pceniteat" (Michaelis, 'Notre Ube- to go out and seek something in the ob- riores in Prov.'), "They shall be filled and scurity of the morning twilight (Delitzsch, eat ad nauseam, so tbat at length, but too Zockler), and hence indicates diligence late, they shall vehemently repent them of and earnestness in the search. Gesenins their own counsels." Counsels (ni:i:]/_io, moe- gives the same derivation, but connects it tsoth); i.e. ungodly counsels, or evil devices. witl, the dawn in the sense of the light The word only occurs in the plural. breaking forth, and thUB, as it were, seeking Ver. 32.-Wisdom now brings her address ( sec also eh. ii. 27 ; viL 15 ; viii. 17 ; Hos. to a close by contrasting the destruction and v. 15). ruin of the foolish, and the security of those V ers. 29 and 30 belong to ver. 28, and who listen to her voice. The turning away; are not the antecedent clauses to ver. 31, ;i;m;Q (m'shuvah), from :in; (shuv), "to turn as Ziichler remarks. They recapitnlate the about, or to return" (which is used meta- charges already made against the sinners phorically of conversion), here means defec- in vers. 22 and 25, and now set them forth tion, turning away ; and hence apostasy as the ground or reason why Wisdom, on (aversio, Vulgate, Chaldee Pare.phrase, Sy- her part, turns a deaf ear te their entreaties. riac ; perversitio, Cast. Version); the '' back- Wisdom will disregard them because they sliding" of Jer. viii. 5; Hoe. xi. 7. Aben have previously disregarded her. The Ezra. understands it to signify "ease," as connection is denoted in the LXX. by -yap, in the marginal reading; but there seems no for the Hebrew tahhath ki, equivalent to warrant for taking the word in that se11se, "because," and in the Authorized Version The LXX. renders the passage quite differ- by the punctuation. Did not choose the ently, 'AvB' ;:;., -yap -/ililKOIJJI 1111..-lovr, ,pov•vB~- fear of the Lord. The verb " to choose" ITOll'Tal," For because they wronged the young, ("1~?• bakhar) combines in itself the mean- they shall be slain ; " so also the Arabic. ings of eligere and diligere (Fleischer), and The turning a.way is from the warnings and therefore signifiea here not only choice of, invitations of Wisdom, and implies rebel- but also the fuller sense of love for, the fear liousness against God. The prosperity. The of the Lord. They despised; i.e. rejected the word in the original (ni~~. ahaJ,'vah) is reproof with scorn or derision, sneered or here used in a bad sense, and means " care- turned up their noses at it (µvK.-11pl(«v, lessness, indolence," that carnal security LXX.), disparaged it (d.etrahere, Vulgate), which is induced by prosperity ond worldly or, more strongly, as Gejerus says, execrated success, as in J er. xxii. 21, "I spoke to thee it. Their rejection of reproof is stigmatized in thy prosperity (security), but thou saidst, in stronger terms than in ver, 25. I will not hear" (of. Ezek. xvi .. 49, whore it Ver. 31.-Therefore they &hall eat, etc. is translated "idleness." So Dathe trans- A further enlargement of the declaration of lates, "Incuria igna.vorum eos perdit." '.rho Wi8dom, showing that their calamity is the Che.ldee Paraphrase e.nd Syri11c Versions result of their own ways. The futureij are read "error." It occurs in a good sense i-s resumed in the original from ver. 28. The "tranquillity,"~" security," in eh. xvii. 1 and word " therefore" does not occur, but it is Pa. cxxii. 7. The derivation of the word i~ 011, I. 1-33,] THE PROVERBS. 17