The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 79

like shakavta, kal perfect, in the correspond- "Let Jove's dread arm with thunders rand ing hcmistich, is from shakav, "to lie down," the spheres, specially to lay one's self down to sleep, ae Beneath the crush of worlds undaunted he in Gen. xix. 4; Ps. iii. 6. Vulgate, si appears." tlormieris; cf. eh. vi. 22, "when thou (Francis's Trans.) sleepest" ']1l.;li,,"1l, b'slwk'b'ka). The LXX. Ver. 26.-Thy oonlldenoe (v'kis'lelc8), rendering, ,; if ·thou sittest" (,cdOr,), arises literally, aa thy confidence. Kesel, pri- from reading :i~'i:' (teshev) for :i~rpi:, (tish'kav). marily "loin" or "flank," as in Lev. iii. 14; Yea, thou she.It lie down; b'shok'b'ta, as x. 15; Job xv. 27, is apparently used here before, with ] prefixed, equivalent to the in its secondary manning of "confidence," fu!uro, as in the Authorized Version; " hope," as in Job viii. 14; xxxi. 24; Ps. LXX., Ka8ev&71s. Shall be sweet; arvah, lxxviii. 7. The :;i ( v') prefixed is what is from arav, "to be sweet," or "pleasant," usually termed the :;i essentiai, or :;i plwnas- perlrnps "well mixed," as at·ev, equivalent to tir.um (equivalent to the Latin 'tanquam, "to mix." Thv sleep shall be full of pleasing "as"), and serves to emphasize the connec- i m prcssions, not restless, as in Deut. xxviii. tion between the predicate "thy confidence" 66 and Job vii. 4, but sweet, because of the and the subject" Jehovah" (of. Exod. xviii. sense of safety, and fr.:im confidence in God, 4; see Ewnld, 'Lehrb.,' 217,/.; and Gesenius, as well as from a good conscience (cf. Job 'Gram.,' § 154). Jehovah shall be in the xi. 18, "Thou shalt take thy rest in safety," highest sense your ground and object of from which the idea is probably taken). coufid'lmce. Delitzsch describes 1£esel as Ver. 25.-Be not afraid; al-tirah, is lite- confideuce in the presence of evil: Jehovah rally " fear thon not," the f~ture w!th ~l in the presence of the "sudden fear," and preceding being used for _the 1mperat1 !e m of " the desolation of the wicked," the evils a dehortative sense, as m Gen. x1 v1. 3; and calamities which overwhelm the wicked, Job iii. 4, 6, 7 (see Gesenius, 'Gram.,' § shall be thy confidence. The sense of his 127. 3, c); Vulgate, ne paveas. Others, all-encircling protection will render you however, render, as the LXX., ou q,o/3710i,cr11, undismayed. 'l.'he meaning given to kesel " 'l'hou shalt not be afraid," in the sense of as ."foolhardiness" (Ps. xlix. 14) and a promise. The verb yare,. from _which "folly" (Eccles. vii. 25), and the connec- tirah, is here followed by mm, as Ill Ps. tion of kesel with llsilim in eh. i. 22, comes iii. 7; xxvii. 1, and properly means "to be from the root-idea kasal, "to be fleshly, or afraid from or before" some person or fat" the signification of which branches out thing. .Sudden; pithom, an adverb_ need on' the one side into strength and boldness, adjectively (cf. like use of adverb 1£h~nnam and on the other into languor and inert- in eh. xxvi. 2). Fear (pakhaa); llB ID eh. ness and so folly or confidence in self i. 16, the object which excites terr~r or fear, (Schultens, Z.o.). The Talmudic rendering as any great disaster. The desolation o~ the of the Rabbi Salomon approximates to this wioked (slwath r'shaim) may be take°: either meanin"' "and the things in which you (1) as the desolation m~e by the viole~ce seemed "to be foolish (desipere videbaris) he of the wicked, the desolation or storm which will be at once present with you." Others, they raise against the rig~teon~ (so. t~e as Ziegler, Muentinghe, give kesel its LXX. 1 Vnlgate, Mariana, M1chaehs, Hitzig, primary meaning, and translate, "Jehovah and 0 thers) ; or (2) the desola.tio? which shall be as thy loins," the loins being re- overtakes the wicked, the deaolatmg ven- garded as the emblem of strength. Jehovah geance executed upon them (~o Doderlein, shall be your strength. But kesel •does Lapide, Stuart, Muensch., Dehtzsch, W!l-rd- not appear to have this local application law). The latter is prob~bly the right here. Wherever it is used in this sense, ~s interpretation, and agre~s with th~ threat- in Job and Leviticus cited above, there 18 ening language of Wisdom agarnst her something in the context to point it out as despisers, in eh. i 27, where shoath also a part of the body. Co_mpare, ~owever, th~ occurs. In the desolation which shall over- 7ulgate, in latere suo, "rn thy side or flank. whelm the wicked he who has made Wisdom The LXX. renders, e1rl 1ra.1Tfi111 _1,3,;,, tTou, his guide shall be undismayed, for the Lord "over all thy ways." From being ta.ken is his confidence. The paBBa.ge was probably (millaked) • Vulgate, ne capiaris, "lest thou Bnggested by eh. v. 21, "Neither sbalt thou be taken."' The meaning is, Jehovah will be afraid of desolation when it cometh." be your protection against all the snares Lee, in Zoe. cit., says t~e pla~s are almost and traps which the impious lay for you. innumerable where thIB sentiment orcurs. Li!lr.i.d "a being taken," is from lakad, "to Compare the fearlessness of the man of take dr catch animals" in a net or in sn11res. integrity and justice, in Horace- It only occurs here in the Proverbs. Its " Si fractue illabatur orbis, unusual appearance, together with other lmpavi<ium ferier.t r~!?:re." reasons, not tenable, however, h!Ls led Hi~zig (Horace, 'Od., m. 3. 7, 8.) to reject vers. 22-26 as an mterpolat1an on. m. 1-35.] THE PROVERBS,