The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 122

where the adulterer was reduced to slavery, Ver. 11.-The lo.at o.rgument is the mental and the punishment inflicted by the Mosaio anguish which ensues when health is ruined code wao1 not slavery, but death (Numb. xx. and weo.lth is sq ucmdered. And thou 10; Deut. xxii. 22), and, as it appears from mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy Ezek. xvi. 40 and John viii. 5, death from body are consumed. The Hebrew v'nahiimta stoning. The adjective iilczari, like its is rather " and thou groan." It is not the equivalent akzar, is derived from the verb plaintive wailing or the subdued grief of kaziir, '· to break," and occurs again in eh. heart which is signified, but the loud wail xi. 17; xii. 10; xvii. 11. The moral of the of lamentation, the gronning indicative of warning is a wasted life. intense mental suffering oalled forth. by the Ver. 10.-Another temporal consequence remembrance of past folly, and which sees of, and deterrent against, a life of profligacy. no remedy in the future. The verb nciham Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; occurs again in cb. xxviii. 15, where it is and thy labours be mthe house of a stranger. used of the roaring of the. lion,. and the '.rbe margin reads, " thy strength" for "thy cognate noun niihiim is met with in eh. xix. wealth." but the text properly renders the 12 awl xx. 2 in the same sense. By Ezekiel original k6iikh, 'l>hich means "substance,'' it is used of the groaning of the people of "wealth,"" riches "-the )·outh's po~sessions Jerusalem when ttiey shall see their sanctu- iu I.Doney and property (Delitzsch). The ary profaned, their sons ancl their da.ughters primar)' meaning of the word is "strength" fall by tb~ sword, and their city destroyed or "might," as appears from the verb 1:,i- (Ezek. xx1v. 23). Isaiah (v. 29, 30) applies hhiihh, " to exert one's self," from which it is it to the roaring of the sea. The Vulgate derirnd, but the parallel ii.tsti.bfylca, "thy reproduces the idea in gemaR, equivalent to toils," rendered "thy labours," determines "and thou groan." The LXX. rendering, its use in the secondary sense here. Com- 1<al µ•-raµe"-118~,r"fl, "and thou shalt repent," pare the similar passage in Hos. vii. 9, arising from thC;J e.doption of a different '' Strangers huve devoured his strength pointing, nikhamtti., from the niph. nrkhiim, [hoiikh, i.e. 'his possessions'], and he knoweth "to repent," for ncihamta, to some extent ex- it not" (see also Job vi. 22). K6akh is the presses the sense. At the last ; literally, at concrete product resulting from the abstract thine end; i.e. when thou art ruined, 01·, as strength or ability when brought into action. the teacher explains, when thy flesh and thr, Thy labours (iit.,cibeyka); i.e. thy toils, the body are consumed. The expression, "thy product of laborious toil, that which you flesh and thy body," here stands forthe whole have gotten by the labour of your hands, body, the body in its totality, not the body and earned with the sweat of your brow. and the soul, which would be different. Of Fleischer compares the Italian i miri these two w01·ds '' the flesh" (ba•ar) mther sudori, and the French mes sueurs. The denotes the flesh in its strict sense as such singular etscv signifies "heavy toilsome (cf. Job xxxi. 31; xxxiii. 21), while" body" labour," and the plural ii.Isa.vim, "labours," (sh'er) is the flesh adhering to the bones. things done with toil, and w the idea passes Gesenius regards them as synonymous terms, to the resultant of the labour. Compare the stating, however, that ah'er is the more very similar expression in Ps. cxxvii. 2, U- poetical as to use. The word bcisar is used khem naii.tsti.u;m, equivalent to" bread obtained to denote the whole body in eh. xiv. 30. It by toilsome labour;" .Authorized Version, is clea.r that, by the use of these two .terms "the bread of sorrows." The Authorized here, the teacher is following a peculiarity Version properly supplies the verb "be" observable elsewhere in tl1e Proverbs, of against those (e.g. Holden et alii) who join combining two terms to express, and so to on "thy labours" to the previous verb "be give force to, one idea. 1'he expression de- filled," as an accusative, and render, "and scribes" the utter destruction of the libertine" with thy labours in the house of a stranger." (Umbreit). This destruction, as further in- So also the LXX. and the Vulgate, "and thy volving the ruin of the soul, is described in labours come" (0,6oun, LXX.) or "be" eh. vi. 32, "Whoso committoth adultery with ( sint, V ulgate) " to the house of strangera " a woman lacketh understanding; he that ( ,is ot,wvs a.A"-o-rpl~v) or, "in a strange house" docth ii destroyeth his own soul (nephesh)" (in aliena domo). In the latter case the (cf. eh. vii. 22, 23). Vul;;ate is wrong, as wk'ri in the phrase Ver. 12.-Self-reproach accompanies the Leyth ndlc'ri fa always personal (Delitzscli), unavailable gwaniug. And say, How have aud ,l,ould be rendered, as in tho Authorized I hated instruction, and my heart despised Version, "in the house of a Btrangcr." The reproof! i.e. how could it ever col.Do to meaning of tLe ver~e is that a life of im- pass that I have acted in such a seusele-s purity tranoferd the profiigate's substunce, R.nd inexcus11ble manner, that I hn ve bated liis wealtl, a11d possessionM, to others, who instruction (musar, disciplina, 1ra1oela), the will be satiated at J,iH expense, and, being warning vc,ico whicl1 dissuaded me from ttrungers, are indiffe1"ent to his ru.in. going with tho harlot, and in wy hear~ 0B, V, ~-23.] THE PROVERBS. 111