The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 326

•Ver. 12.-Let a bear robbed of her whelps town had its reservoir, or tank as we find meet a man. The Syrian bear was once in India at the present time. These reccp- common throughout Palestine; it is now t~cles had to be kept in good repair, o> found in but few loca!Uies, such as the hills disastrous consequences might ensue. O,i of Hermon and Lebanon, and in the wilds the tendency of a quarrel to grow to " east of the Jordan, the destruction of wood dangerous extent, a Bengal proverb spn1i<s and forest having deprived these animals of O going in a needle an<l coming ont n. of the shelter necessary to their existence. ploughshare." Vulgato, Qui dimittit nq11am, 'l'he ferocit.y of tbe bear when deprived of caput ed jurgiorum, which seems to mean its young- had become pr-overbie.1 (see 2 Sam. that the man who needlessly lets the watel' xvii. 8; Hos. xiii. 8 ; He.rt, 'Animals of the of a cistern run to waste gives occasion to Bible,' 28, etc.). Rather than a fool in hie quarrels. But St. Gregory (' Moral.,' v. folly; i.e. in the paroxysm of his passion. 13), commenting on the paa,agc, in terpret8 Compare Saul's ungoverned language to differently: "It is well said by Solomon, Jonathan (1 Sam. xx. 80), and Herod's • He that letteth out water is a head of murder of the children (Matt. ii. 16). So strife.' For the water is let out when the we read of the people being filled with 11.vo,a flowing of the tongue is let loose. Auel he against Jesus (Luke vi. 11). Oort supposes that letteth out water is made the beginning that this proverb. arose from the 1·iddle, of strife, in that, by the incontinency of th" "What is worse to meet than a bear?" lips, the commencement of discord is af- Septuagint, "Care will fall upon a man of forded" (Oxford transl.). Probably, how- understanding; but fools imagine evils." ever, in the Latin, us in the Hebrew, the The Greek translators talrn '' bear " as us ·d particle of comparison is suppressed, so that metaphorically for terror and anxiety, but tho clause means, "As he who lets out go far astray from the Hebrew text. water, so is he who gives occasion to strife." Ver. Ia.-Whoso rewardeth evil for good. Therefore leave oft' contention, before it be This we.a David's complaint of the churlish meddled with. The last word Jl~;r:in is of Nabal (1 Sam. xxv. 21). Ingratitude shall doubtful interpretation. It occu~; • in eh. surely be punished. Evil shall not depart xviii. 1 and xx. 3, and is variously trans- from hie house. Terribly has the ingrati- lated, "before it rushes forward," "before tude of the Jews been visited. They cried it grows warm," " before a man becomes in their me.clness, "Hie blood be on us and wrathful." But Hitzig, Nowack, and otbers on our children I " and their punishment is take it to signify, "before men show their still going on. Injunctions on this subject teeth," like angry dogs snarling at one a.re frequent in the New Testament (see another. The moralist advises men to sub- Matt. v. 89; Rom. xii. 17; 1 Thess. v. 15; due angry passions nt once before they 1 Pet. iii. 9). The Talmud snys, "Do not become exacerbated. The ~nlgate seems throw a stone into the well whose waters to ho.ve quite mistaken the clause, trans- you hnve drunk." The Greeks felt the lating, Antequam patiatur contumeliam, sting of ingratitude. Thus Leiodea com- judicium deserit, which seems to menn that plains to Ulysses (' Od.,' xxii. 819)- a patient, peace-loving man (in contrast '.nr ol!1< luT1 xd.p1s µeT&1r,u8' ,l!ep-ylr,,v. with the iro.scible) avoids lawsuits before he is involved in 11, lasting quarrel. Septu- Two sayings of Publius Syrus a.re quoted agint, "The beginning (o.pxh) of justice (' Sent.,' vv. 219, 274): "Ingratua unus gives power to words; but discor,l and eon- omnibus miseris nocet; " "l\folignoa fieri tention lend the WILY to want." The Greek maxima ingrati doeent." commentators see here ILD allu~ion to the Ver. 14.-The beginning of strife is ns clepsydra, the water-clock which regulated when one letteth out water. The smnll the length of the speeches in a court of rift in the bank of n reservoir of wo.ter, if law; but the reference is by no means clear. not immediately secured, is soon enlarged Ver. 15.-He that justifieth-in a foren. and gets beyond control, occasioning wide- sio sense, decl11rcs righteous, acquits-the spl'ead ruin and destruction; so from smrul wicked, etc. Two forms of the perversion and insignificant cauBes, which might at of justice are censured, viz. the acquittal first have been easily checked, nrise feuds of u guilty person and the condemnation of and quarrels which extend in a wi~o circle, au innocent one (comp. eh. xxiv. 24; Isa. and cannot be appeased. Palestrne was V. 23). largely dependent upon ih re~ervoirs. for Ver. 16.-Wherefore is there e. price in the storage of water, pereumal sprrngs the hand of a fool to get wisdom 1 A fool being of rare occurrence. The three pools thinks that there is a. royal road to wisdom, of Solomon in the uoighbourhood of Beth- and that it, like other things, is to be pur- lehem, whioh were connected by chnnncls chased with money. Vulgate, Quid prodest with Jerusalem, o.re still to be seen in nil stulto habere divitias, cum sapientiam emera ~oir m11ssive grandeur; nnd, indeed, every non possit l 'fhe mbbis in later timo wero  83i THE PROVERBS, [ell, XVII, 1-28,