" man liw down his life for hie friends" an,! Nowack take it, "Ilnt a precious pos- (John x,. i::l). Hitzig, Delit.zsch, and others, session of a man is diligence." r<>ading differently, trnnslate, "A just man Ver. 28.-In the way of righteousness is spieth out ( or, lookcth after) his pasture;" life (comp. eh. x. 2). Fo1· the promise of i.e. he is not like the sinner, hampered and t"mporal prosperity which the Jew saw in confined bv the chain of evil habits and such passages as these we substitute a better associations, but is free to follow the lead hope. And in the pathway tliereof-of of ,irtue, and to go whither dnty and his righteousness-there is no death. Many own best interests call him. This gives a combine the two words thus: "no-death," ,·ery good sense, and makes a forcible anti- i.e. immortality; but examples of such thesis with the succeeding clause. :Bnt the combination are not forthcoming, and the way of the wicked eeduceth them; "causes anomaly is not necessitated. by the failure tlwm, tJH, wicked, to err." Far from guiding of the usual rendering to afford an adequate othc>rs nright, the wicked. reaping the moml sense. The Greek nnd Latin versions o.re <'o:1,c,1ne11ces of their sin, drift hopelessly noteworthy. Septuagint, "The ways of a~tray themselves. BPfore the last olause the revengeful (µ11,,<111<&.1e,.,11) are unto (',!l, not some· manuscripts of the Septuagint add, "But the judgments of the wicked are '.!-t) death." St. Chrysostom refers (' Hom. harsh ; enls shall pursue sinners" ( eh. xiii. xvi. in Eph.') to this rendering: "He here 21). The whole is probably a gloss. speaks of vindictiveness; for on the spur of the moment he allows the sufferer to act Yer. 27.-The slothful man (literally, in order to check the aggressor; but further ,lot/,) roasteth not that which he took in to bear o. grudge he permits not; because hunting. There is some doubt concerning the act then is no longer one of passion, nor the correct meaning of the word translated of boiling rage, but of malice premeditated. "roasteth" (7;;,), which occurs only in the Now, God forgives those who may be earried Chaldee of Dan. iii. 27, where it signifies away, perhaps upon a sense of outra6 e, and •· b:irned " or "singed," according to the rush out to 1·esent it, Hence he says, 'eye traditional rendering. It seems to be a for eye; ' and yet again 'The ways of pro,erbial saying, implying either that a the revengeful lead to death.'' VulgRte, "A lazy mau will not take the trouble to hunt, devious path leads to death"-a path, that or, if he does hunt, will not prepare the food is, which turns aside from the right direc- which he has taken in the chase, or that tion, a life and conversation whlch are ho does not enjoy it when he bas gotten alien from justice and piety. But both the it. Others render, '' will not start his prey;" Septuagint and the Vulgate lmve missed or "catch ],is prey," Septuagint; or" secure the right meaning of the words in question; his prey," i.e. will not keep in bis net what derelc n~thibal1, "pathway." llfony see in he has caught, but carelessly lets it esl'ape. this veroe a plain evidence that the writer The Vulgate r-enderd, "The cheat will gain believed in the immortality of the soul. We no profit." The word rendered "cheat," have reason to suppose that such was his jraudulentUB in the Latin, and lioluos in the faith, but it cannot be proved from this Greek, is the same as that riglitly treDBlated passage, though we mo.y consider that he "slothful" (ver. 24). Bnt the substance of was guided to spenk in terms to which later a diligent man is precious; i.e. the substance knowledge would affix a deeper interpreta- which an honest, industrious man acquires tion (see eh. xiv. 32, and note there). It is bv liis Jabour is stable and of real value. Jesus Christ "who bath brought life and Tliis seeond clause, however, is varionHly immortality (o:,p8a.pirla.11) to light through the tra1,sbted. Revised Version, But the gospel" (2 Tim. i.10). Writers in Solomon's precious suhstance of men i8 to the diligent, time could speak only darkly about this or, is to be diligent; Delitzsch, '' Diligence is sublime and comforting hope, though later, a man's precious possession;" SPptuagint. "A as in the llook of Wisdom and throughout pure man is a precious possession." The most of the Apocryphal bool<s, it formed Authorized Version is probably erroneous, a common topic, and was used as o. reason and the rnndering should be, as Delitzsch for patience and resignation.
HOMILE'l'ICS. Yer. 3.-The instability of wickedneBs. I. WICKEDNESS MAY BRING 'l'EMPORAL Pll•JSPERITY. It is important to observe the limitations of our subject. 'l'he Bible is not an unreasonable book ; it does not ignore the patent factH of life; it doe11 not ,leny that there are pleasures of 11in. 'l'he very statement that "a mau shaJl _not be establiBhed by wickedness" implieR that he may be lifted up, and may really enJoy prosperity tor a seas(ln. Though not built up, be may be puffed up, '!'his is to be borno in mind, Oil, XII, 1-28.] THE PROVERBS. 239