The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 140

meo.ning, o.nd tho.t which it usually bears in strare), and hence came to mean " to teach.•· Scripture, is iniquity. "A man of iniquity" The crafty and deceitful character which ie is one who is o.ltngether deficient in moral ?ere prese_nte~ to us is strikingly reproduced consciousness, o.ud who goes about to work m Eccles1ast1cus: "He that winketh with wickedness o.nd do hurt o.nd injury to others the eyes worketh evil: and he that knowetb (cf. ver. 18 and Job xxii. 15). Walketh with him will depart from him. When thou art a froward mouth. His first characteristic, present, he will speak sweetly, and will as alree.d y observed. His whole life and admire thy words: but at the last he will conduct are marked by craftiness, deceit, per- writhe his month, and slander thy sayings. version, and misrepresentation, and an utter I _have hated many things, but nothing like want of truth. "Walking" is here, as else- him; for the Lord will hate him" (Ecclus. where in Scripture, used of some particular xxvii. 22-24). The heathen poet Nrevins course of conduct. So we find the LXX. says of the impudent woman- paraphrase, ,ropev,-ra, 660/,r OUI< a-ya9&r, "he enters or walks not in good ways." With a " Alium tenet, alii adnutat, alibi manus froward mouth (Hebrew, ik'shuth peh); Est occupata: est alii percellit pedem." literally, with per1Jersity of mouth; Vulgate, Compare also Ovid's words (' Amor.,' i. i'f. ore perverso. Symme.chus has ry-rp,/3ll.,6- 16)- µa<r, <r-roµa-ror, " with perversity of mouth." The mouth, or speech, is the vehicle by " Clam mihi tange pedem: which this pereou gives outward expres- Me specta., mutusque meos, vultumqne sion to the evil thoughts which are inwardly Ioquacem. filling his heart. 'fhe phrase occurs before in eh. iv. 24. The meaning of the pasRage Verba superciliis sine voce loqnentia dicam; is well illustrated in Ps. x. 7, "Hie mouth Verba leges digi tis." is full of misery, deceit, and fraud : under So Tibnllus, i. 12- hie tongue is mischief and vanity." Ver. 13.-He winketh with his eyes, he " Illa viro coram nutus conferre loquaces speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with hie Blandaque compositis abdere verba notis." fingers. He employs hie other members The lesson which we may learn from this for the same nefarious purpose. In the verse is not to abuse the members of our language of St. Paul, he yields his members bodies, by employing them for the purposes to uncleanne~s, and to iniquity unto iniquity of deceit and hypocrisy, and so to promote (Rom. vi. 19). "To wink with the eye (ka- evil, but to put them to their natural and rii.ts ii.yrn)," as in eh. x. 10 and Pe. xxxv. 19, legitimate use. or "with the eyes (karii.ts b' eynii.yim )," is pro- Ver. 14.-From these external features perly to compress or nip them together, and the teachn passes to the heart. the seat of so to wink, and give the signal to others not all this mischief and deceit. la this respect to interfere (Geseuius and Delitzech); cf. we observe a striking correspondence with the LXX., ivv,6,. o<f>9all.µi; and the Vul- the method adopted by our 15,iviour in his gate, annuit oculis. Aquila and Theodoret, teaching, who referred everything to the however, read, 1<v((,., "he vezes or an'TIOIJS." heurt, as the true seat of all that was good The observation of the teacher in eh. x. or bad in man. Frowardness is in his heart 10 is, "He that winketh with his eyes (Hebrew, tii.h'pilkoth b'libbo); i.e. his heart is co.useth sorrow." The same verb karuts is full of perverse imaginations, it is there also used of the compression or closing of he nourishes his jealousy, his hatred, his the lips in eh. xvi. 30. He spealceth with his malice, his ill will. It is there, too, he feet; i.e. he conveys signs by them to his deviseth mischief oontinually. "Devising companion ; cf. the LXX., <r71µ0.lvei 6/; mischief" carries us one step further be.ck 1ro6I, and the Vulgate, terit pede, which in the history of evil. It is this feature. conveys much the ea.me meaning. He this deliberate premeditation to plot mis- teacheth with his finr,ers; or, ee more fully chief and to devise means to c,1rry it into expressed in the LXX., 6,6&<rt<EI 6/; <vn6µa<r, execution, which makes the character of the 6a1<-r6ll.ow, "he teacheth by the signs of his man simply diabolical. He makes his heart fingers." Symm11chus has 6a1<Tvll.06E11<-roiv, us it were the workshop wherein he fabri- which, however, in its strictly classical use cates and prepares his villainy. The Hebrew (see Demosthenes, 790. 20) is pointing at kharii.sl, (to which the participle lcMresh with the finger. "Teaching" is only the belongs) is equivalent to the Vulgate ma- secondary meaning of the Hebrew participle ohinari, and the LXX. ut<Talvoµa,, "to mt5rl!'h, which is here used. The verb yarah, fabricate, devise, plot." (See eh. iii. 29 and to which it belongs, meo.ns properly to ell:• ver. 18; and cf. Ps. J:xxvi. 4, '' He deviseth tend or stretch out the hand for the purpose mischief upon his bed.'') The LXX. com- of pointing out the way (compare the bines the two statements iu one proposition : Hebrew shalakh yod, and the Latin mon- "A perverse heart deviseth evil at all PROVERBS. K 130 THE PROVERBS. [err. v1. 1-36.