The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 123

despised, i.e. rejected inwardly, whatever my course (c(l!lUB) of the people executing the outward demeanour mny have been, the re- condemning sentence (Numb. xv. 15; cf. proof whioh followed aFter 1 had been with Pa. vii. 7), and renders, " Well nigh had I hor I Despised (naiits), as in eh. i. 30; comp. fallen into ntter destruction in tile midst of the also eh. xv. 5, "A fool deapiaeth his father's assembly and the congregation." Fleischer, instrucliona." Vatablus, and Boyne take much the same Ver. 13.-And have not obeyed the voice view, looking upon ra (" evil," Authorized of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them Version) as " punishment," i.e. the evil that instructed me. The ruined profligate which follows ns a consequence of sin-a. admits he was not wilhout teachers and usage supported by 2 Sam. xvi. 18; Exod. advisers, but that he gave no heed to their v. 10; l Chron. vii. 23; Pa. x. 6-rather warninga and rcproofa. Have not obeyed the than as evil per se, i.e. that which is morally voice (16-shamii'ti b'Ml). The same phrase bad, as in Exod. xxxii. 22. Aben Ezra con- occurs in Gen. xxvii. 13; Exod. xv iii. 19; siders that the perfect is used for the future; Dent. xx'\'i. 14.; 2 Se.m. xii. 18. 'file verb "In a little time I shall be involved in all sl11J.mii is prim~ily ••. to hear," nnd then "to evil;" i.e. punishment, which is looked for- obey," '' to give heed to," like the Greek ward to prospecth-ely. For "almost" (ki- dK06e&1. mat,equivalent to" within a little."" almost," Ver. 14.-I we.a almost in all evil in the "nearly"), see Gen. xxvi. 10; P~. lxxiii. 2; midst of the cong1·ega.tion and assembly; cxix. 87. i.e. such was my shamelessness that there was scarcely any wickedness which I did not Vera. 15-19.-Commendation of the chaste commit, unrnstrained even by the presence intercourse of marriage. In this section the of the congregation and assembly. The fact teacher passes from admonitory warnings which the ruined vouth laments is the against unchastity to the commendation of extent and audacity ·of his sins. It is not that he accuses himself of hypocrisy in eonj ugal fidelity and pure love. The alle- religion (Delitzsch), but he adds another gorical exposition of this pa~sage, current at element in his career of vice. He has dis- the period of the Revision of the Authorized regarded the warnings and reproofa of his Version in 1612, as referring to liberality, is teachers and friends; but more, the presence not ad rem. Such an idee. had no place of the congregation of God's people, a silent certainly in the teacher's mind, nor is it but not a less impressive protest, had no restraining effect upon him. 'fhe words, appropriate to the context, the scope of "the congregation and assembly" (Hebrew, which is, as we have seen, to w11m youth kahal v'edah), seem to be used to heighten against indulgence in illicit pleasures, by the conception, rather than to express two po°lnting out the terrible consequences which distinct and separate idellll, since we find follow, aud to indicate, on the other hand, them both used interchangenbly to designate the congregation of the Israelites. The in whe.t direction the satisfaction of natural radical conception of kahal ("congregation") wants is to be obtained, that so, the heart is tl..te snme as that of the LXX. e1<1tl\1Ju1a. and conscience being kept pure, sin and and Vulgate ecclesia, viz. the congregation evil may he avoided. looked upon from the point of its being called together, kahal being derived from Ver. 15.-Drink waters out of thine kahii.l, which in hiph. is equivalent to "to own cistern, etc.; i.e. in the wife of your call together," while that of edah is the con- own choice, or in the legitimate sphere of gregation looked at from the point of its marriage, seek tl..te satisfaction of your having assembled ldah being derived from n11tural impulses. The pure, innocent, and yaiid, in niph. equi vu.lent to "to come to- chaste nature of such pleasures is appro- gether." The· latter will therefore stand for priately compared with the pure and whole- any assembly_of people specinlly convened some waters of the cistern and the well- or coming together for some definite object, spring. The "drinking" carries with it the like the LXX. a-vva-yc.l-y11 and the Vulgo.te satisfying of a natural want. Agreeably synagoga. The term edah is, howevor, used witl..t orient11l and scriptural usage, " the in a technical sense as signifying the seventy wife" is comp11red with a "ci~tcrn" and elders, or senato1·s, who ju,lged the people "well." Tl..tus in the Song of Solomon the (see Numb. xxv. 7; xxxv. 12). Rabbi Salo- "bride" is called "a. spring shut up, a mon so explains haedah as " the congrega- fountain sealod" (Song of Sol. iv. 12). tion," in Josh. xx. 6 and Numb. xxvii. 21. So.re.h is spoken of nuder exactly the same Otherexplo.nations, however, have been given figure tl.111t is used herr, viz. the bur, or of these words. Zockler takes lcahal us the "cistorn," in lse.. Ii. 1. Tlie figure wus not convened council of ddcrs 1wting us .iurlgcs confined to women, however, ns we find (Dent. xxxili. 4, 5), and Bdah 11a the con- Judah alluded to as" wators" in Isa. xlviii. l, 112 THE PROVERBS. [OH. V. 1-23.