The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 75

Vulgate, crcqnisilio; LXX., l/L11'op<onr8at. to denote precious stones in geneml. The The gain arising from trading in wisdom is LXX. renders, " She is morn prC'cious than better than that which arises from trading precious stoneo (J..{80,v ,roJ..vT•i\wv)." So the in silver. Sakh'1·crh is the gain or profit Targum Jone.than, Syrinc, and Arabic. The nrising from merchandise, i.e. from tro.ding. Vulgate renders, "She is more precious than It denotes the act itself of gaining. The all riches (cunctis opibus)." The word root sakrah, like t.he Greek lµ.11'opn,fr9at, p'ninim only occurs here (Keri) and in eh. signifies "to go about for the sake of traffic," viii. 11; xx. 15; xxxi. 10; nnd in Job and i.e. to trade. There may be an allusion Lamentations as above. This passage, as here, as in eh. ii. 4, to the new commerce well as eh. viii. 11, which is e.n almost (Plumptre). The gain thereof (t'vuathah); literal repetition of it, are imitations of Job i.e. tl,e gain existing in, and going along xxviii. 18. The identitication of p'ninim with, Wisdom herself; gain, therefore, in 11, with "pearls'' me.y have suggested our different sense from that indicated in sakh'• Lord's parable of the pearl of great price rah. Gesenius takes it e.s "gain resulting (Matt. xiiL 45, 46).. All the things thou canst from Wisdom," as in eh. viii. 19 end Isa. desire (kal-khaphatseyka); literally, all thy xxiii. 3. The word is used of the produce of desires. Here everything in which you the earth, the idea apparently embodied in have pleasure, or all your precious things; the Vulgate fructus. In this ce.se there may LXX., ,,.a,, Tlµ.,ov; Vulgate, omnia, qum be a reference to ver. 18, where Wisdom is desiderantur. The comparison, which has said to be a" tree of life." The LXX. omits risen from the less to the more ve.lua.ble, the latter clause of this verse. The sense is, culminates in this comprehensive expression. " The posses.sion of Wisdom herself is better '!'here is nothing, neither silver, gold, pre- than :fine gold." Fine gold (karots); Vul- cious stones, nor anything precious, which gete, aurom purom; Syriac, aurom puris- is an equivalent (shavah) to.Wisdom in value. simum. Kharuts is the poetic word for gold, How it shows, when everything is put beforn so called, either (1) from its brilliancy, and us to choose from, that, like Solomon e.t then a.kin to the Greek xpvcr&s (Curtius); Gibeon, we should prefer wisdom (1 Kings or (2) from its being dug up, from the root iii. 11-13) I In the second half of this 1charats, "to cut into or dig up," "to verse the LXX. substitutes," No evil thing sharpen." It evidently means the finest competes with her; she is well known to e.11 and purest gold, and is here contrasted with that approach her." silver (1ceseph ). The word is translated Ver. 16.-The remaining three verses "choice gold" in eh. viii. 10; " gold" simply (16-18) state in what respects Wisdom is in eh. xvi 16,; "yellow gold " in Ps. lxviii. incomparable in ve.lue. Length of days; 13; and " fine gold " in Zech. ix. 3. In the orelc yamim, as in ver. 2. Wisdom is her1, Version J nnii et Tremellii it appears e.s represented as holding in her right hand e{foswm aurum, "gold dug up," i.e. gold in that which is previously promised to obedi- its native, unalloyed state. The •.re.rgum ence. Length of days is the blessing of Jonathan understands it of '' molten gold" blessings, the condition of all prosperity and (aurum ccmflatum). enjoyment, and hence is placed in the 1·ight Ver. 15.-Rubies (Khetib, p'niyim; Keri, hand, the chief place, for among the p'ninim). No unanimous opinion has been Hebrews and other Oriental nations, lis arrived at a.s t.o the real signification of the also among the Greeks the right hand was word here translated "rabies." The ma- regarded as the position of highest honom· jority of the rabbins (among them Rashi), (Pa. ex. ] ; 1 Kings ii. 19; 1 Mace. x. 63 : and Bochart, Hartman, Bohlen, Lee on Job Matt. xxii. 24); cf. Pa. xvi. 11. in which the xxxviiL 18, and Ziickler, render it" pearls." psalmist says of Jehovah, "In thy right Its meaning seems to lie between this and hand there are pleasures for evermore." " corals," the rendering adopted by Mi- The two hands, the right and tho . left, chadis, Gesenius, and Delitzsch (following signify the abundance of Wi6dom's gifts. Fleischer), who says that the Hebrew Riches and honour stand here for prosperity p'ninim 'corresponds with the Arabic word in general. The same expression occurs iu whose root-idea is "shooting forth," and eh. viii. 8, where riches are explained a~ means "a branch." The peculiar branching "durable riches." A spiritual interpreta- form in which coral is found favours this tion can, of course, be given to this passage- opinion, which is strengthened by the pas- length of days being understood of eteruo.l sage in Lam. iv. 7, where we get additional life; riches, of heavenly riches; and honour, information as to colour, "They [the Naza- not "the honour that cometh of men," but rites] were more ruddy in body than rubies," honour conferred hv God (1 Sam. v. 44; a description which would apply to "coral," John xii. 26); see Wardlaw, in loc. The but is scar~ly applicable to "pearlB." '.rhe thought of the verse is, of course, that various versions suggest the further idee. Wisdom not only holds these blessings in her thu.t p'ninim was a descriptive word used hands, but also confers them on those who en. 111. 1--35.] THE PROVERBS. 61