The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 101

passive sense, thongh an RCtive signification tho preceding section is obvious. Thore is given it by the Riibbi NRthiin bon Jcchiel, e.ro two ways diametriciilly opposite-the quoted by Delitzsch, in loc., who renders, way of wisdom and the wiiy of evil ; the '' Thou sh0.lt not need to bind together, or one the way of life, the other fraught hedge up thy way." The roots ycitsiir and with death, because a w11y of darkness tBur partake more or Jess of the ide0. of bind- and violence. As , the father hllB dealt ing up, oppressing, putting into n0.rrow and with the former, so now ho do11ls with the confined circumstances Rnd limits. By the latter. With these wo.rnings we may also expression th0.t "the steps are straitened" comp. eh. i. 10-15 and ii. 10-15, where we may understRnd, therefore, that there is much the same warning is given, and the a want· of freedom for their movements, and way of the wicked is described in almost the consequently that they are impeded or same terms. The warning of the father takes cramped. 'l'he Arabic expression, "to con- a threefold form: (1) enter not; (2) go not; tract the feet," signifies the diminishing of (3) a.void. In effect he says this is the only good fortune. Compa.re the similar expres- course to be adopted in order to keep a. firm eion in Job xviii. 7, "The steps of his hold of Wisdom which he has counselled in strength shall be straitened." The psalmist the preceding verse (13). Enter not; iil-tav6, presents the idea of the verse under a dif- from b6, '' to come in," " to enter," i.e. do ferent form, " Thou hast enlarged my steps not even enter. The Vulge.te renders, under me, so that my feet did not slip" (Ps. " Delight not in," evidently from reading xvii. 36). Thou sha.!t not stumble; l6-thik- tove, which occurs in eh. i. 10. But our kasl1el, hipb. future. The niph. nlksluil, reading is to be preferred, as avah, " to equivalent to the 1ml kci.,hiil, signifies pro- acquiesce in," from which tov'e, is not used perly "to totter," "to sink down," used of one about to fall. The primary idea, however, with ?, here denoting place, but with 7. Go not (iil-t'ashsher); i.e. do not walk in. usually disregarded, of kashiil, is "to totter The two verbs " to enter" (bo) and "to go'' in the ankles," equivalent to the Latin tali- (lshslier) stand in the relation of entering pedare. It oecnrs again in eh. iv. 16, and and going on--i1!!fresBUB and progress-us. So is a different verb from "stumble" in eh. Gejerus and Delitzsch. The piel ishsher, here iii. 23 (which see). used, is properly "to go straight 011," like Ver. 13.-The short but urgent admoni- the kal, ashiir, of which it is an intensh'e nitions in this verse may be explained by (cf. eh. ix. 6). It is the bold, presumptuous the knowledge which the father has of the walk, the stepping straight out of the evil, remptations to which youth is exposed e.nd which iB here indico.ted, and against this the liability of youth to fall into them, as the father warns his son. The sense is, "If well as by the fact that Instruction, or Wis- you h0.ve entered the way of the wicked, do dom. is tLe bestower of life. This latter not continue or persevere in it." The other conviction is the reason why he arges "tak- meanings of the verb ashiir, viz. "to guide ing fast hold" of Wisdom. The tenacious straight" ( eh. xxiii. 19), " to esteem happy grasp with which the shipwrecked sinking and prosperous" ( eh. xxxi. :!8 ), are not in s0.ilor Jays hold on any spar or plank float- place here, as they destroy the parallelism of ina near will illustrate the kind of gro.sp thought, and on the ea.me ground the LXX. with which Wisdom is to be held. It is no and Syriac renderings, "envy not " and µ.718~ less a virtue to keep and hold fast e. good (71>,.tf,rrvs, are to be rejected. The_ wiok~d thing than to get it at the first beginning (ishaim), i.e. the godless (cf. Ps. 1. 1), 1s (l',luffet). Instruction (musar), usually of e. parallel with "evil men" (ra1m), i.e. the disciplinary nature (see eh. i. 3), here more habitu0.lly wicked. particularly the iDb-tru_ction of the father, ~ut Ver. 15.-Avoid it; p'rttehu, the 1ml im- in a wider sense wisdom generally, with perative of pcirii, properly,'' to let go," hence which it is synonymous, ll8 appears from the "to reject, or abhor." (On the verb, see eh. feminine, "let her not go, keep her," mUl!ar i. 25, where it is rendered, "set at naught.") bein"' masculine; or the feminines may The aame verb also occurs in eh. viii. 33; refer° back to " Wisdom" in ver. 11. So xiii. 18; xv. 32. It; i.e. the wo.y. The suffix Mcrcerus and Buxtorf. For she is thy life of the verb in the ori_gina.l i"e fominine, (lei-hi lchiiyytka); i.e. she brings life to thee. "avoid her;'' di!rl!lc, "the way," boing com- ,v is<lom is represented as the bestower of mon. Tum from it (s'teh mealttyv). The lung life, in cb. iii. 2, 16, 18. J llilt in pro- original is a. pregnant expression equivalent portion as Wisdom is retained o.nd l,'1.larded, to "turn a.side from it, so tho.t you do not 1:10 is life secured, and so far as the hold come to stand upon it." '!'ho word mealttyv, upon her is Jost, so are the hopes of life equivalent to the Latin desuper ea, has much diminished. Life depends upon the obser- the same force as the French de dessus o.nrl vance of her precepts. the Italian di sopra (Delitzsch ). The verb Ver. 14.-From admonition the father ,atah ie, as in the Authorized Version, "to passes to warning. '!'he connection with turn, or go aside." l'ass awa::,; avtir, kal 01[, IV, 1-27.] THE PROVERBS. 89