The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 102

imperative of dviir, '' to p11es ov&r," equi va- are eo cond_itioned .. 1:here is no comparison lent to Lo.tin tra,mire, here meo.ne " to paee expressed :m the ong:mal, as the rendering on, or along," "to go beyond," like the Ger- adopted. by Schultens o.nd others implies, man Ger weif,er gehn. The counsel of the "For wickedness do they eat as breacl, and father is not only "tum aside from," but violence do they drink as wine," which is "put the greatest poeeible diet.once between evidently based on Job xv. 16, "Which you and it." The injunction. so absolutely drinkcth up iniquity like water," o.nd Job ste.ted, to have nothing to do with sin, is xxxiv. 7, "Who drinketh up scorning like required, if not indeed prompted, by the water." The literal rendering is, for they knowledge of the fact that youth, confident eat the bread of wickedness, and the wine of in its own power of resistance, frequently violence do they drink. The bread of wicked- indulges in the fatal mistake of imagining nesa (U/,Mm r€shii) is not bread which that it can dally with sin with impunity. consists in wickedness, but bread which is The only course compe.tible with safety is obtained by wickedness, just as the wine of to entirely a.void it. violence (yiyin khamiisim) is not the wine Ver. 16.-Thie verse exhibits the extreme which produces violence, bnt the wine that depravity o.nd debasement into which "the is procured by violent deeds. Their sup- wicked'' (r'shaim) o.nd "the evil" (raim) of port, what they eat and drink, is obtained ver. 14 have fa.lien. Their sine are not s:irut by wickedness and injustice. They live bv of frailty, but 11rise from premeditation and wrong. For snch expressions as "the brea;l from their inso.tio.ble desire to commit wicked- of wickedness" o.nd "the wine of violence," ness. Sin has become to them e. kind of cf. Deut. xvi. 3, "the bread of affliction;" second nature, and, unless they indulge in Ps. cx.xvii. 2, " the bread of sorrows;" it, sleep is banished from their eyes. They o.nd Amos ii. 8, '' the wine of the cou- sleep not; lo-yish'nu, future of yashiin, " to demned." There is e. change of tense in the fall asleep ; " the future here being used for verbs, the first being perfect, "they ho.ve the present, ll9 is frequently the case in the eaten,'' and the second future, "they shall Proverbs, and denoting a permanent condi- drink,'' which Delitzsch exploins WI repre- tion or habit. Unless they oe.uae some to senting the twofold act-first eating the fe.ll; i.e. "unless they have betrayed others bread, and then washing it down with wine. into sin," taking the verb in an ethical sense Ver. 18.-A contrast is drawn in this and (Zi:ickler), or, which is preferable, owing to the following verse between the path of ver. 16a, unless they he.ve clone them some the just and the wo.y of the wicked. The injury (Mercerus); Vulgo.te, nisi supplan- former is, by an extremely beautiful image, taverint. For the Klletib yil,'shulu., kal, likened to the light at dawn, which goes on which would mee.n "unless they havo increasing in brightness and intensity as the stumbled or fe.llen," the Keri substitutes duy advances, until o.t length it reaches its the hiph. yiil,' shihi, ",mless they ho.ve meridian splendour and glory. An exactly ce.used some to fall." The hiph. is found similar figure i! foWld in David's last worus without o.ny object, as here, in 2 Chron. x.xv. (2 So.m. xxiii. 4). The path of the just; i.e. 8). (On· the verb hhasiil, from which it is their moral course. As the ehlllillg light derived, see eh. iv. 12.) With the statement (k'or nogiih); i.e. e.s the light of dawn. The of the verse we me.y compare David's com- word nogiih, from nagiih, "to shine," is a plaint of the persistent persecution of his noun, o.nd properly signifies "brightness," enemies (Ps. lix. 15), "If they be not "shining,'' "splendour." It is used aLlo to satisfied, then will they stay e.ll night " designo.te the dawn, the light of the sun (margin), A similar construction to the when it first mounts the horizon, ,md shecl3 one before us occurs in Virgil : "Et si non its b~ame over the lanclscape, us in Isa. L-t. aliquo. nocuisses, mortuus eases"-" And had 3, "Kings (shnll come) to the brightness you not, by some meo.ns or other done him (nogiih) ot'thy rising;" and Isa. !xii. 1, "Until an injury, you would ho.ve died" (' Eclog.,' the righteousness thereof go forth ns the iii. 15); of. also Juvenal: "Ergo non o.liter brightness(nogiih)"(cf.2 Sam. xxiii. 4, where poterit dormire; quibusdo.m somnum rixa the same word also occurs). Michaelis focit "-" Therefore, not otherwise, would and Schultens refer nogiih to "the pnth,'' he he.ve slept ; contention to somo produces and render," The path of the just is splendid aleep." Hitzig rejects ver8.16 and 17 e.g11inst o.s the light." So Dathe and others; and in a.II manuscript authority. this sense it was understood by the LXX., Ver. 17.-For (l,i,equivalenttothe Greek "The pu.th of the just sho.11 shine as the light -yup) is here explanatory. It serves not so shines." The Vulgo.te renders, qua:ti lu.z; much to introduce o.nother independent splendens. The.t shineth more and more statement, as one which accounts for the (Miele vaor); literally, goillg and shining-u. statement made in the preceding verse, the.t common Hebrew idiom denoting progression the wicked sleep not unleee they have done or increnee. The construction of the parti- mischief, i.e. it states the reo.son why they 1 ciple Mlek, from haliik, " to go,'' with the  90 THE PROVERBS. [011. IV. 1-27,