The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 342

for me," says tho psalmist (Ps. lxi. :l), "and niscence of the passage occurs in the 're.lmud a strong Tower from the enemy." The words (' Abotli,' 5. 10),," I weighed all things in the bring before us a picture of a capitol, or halo.nee, and found I nothing lighter than central fortress, in which, at times of clanger, meal; lighter than meo.l is the betrothecl the surrounding population could take man who dwells in the house of his intended refuge. Into this Name we Christians are father-in-law; lighter than he is a guest liaptized ; and trusting in it, and doing the who introduces o. friend· and lighter than <lnt.ies to which our profession calls, with he is the man who e.ns~ers before he hos faith and prayer, we are safe in the storms of heard the other's speech " (Dukes, p. 72, life ,md the attacks of spiritual enemies. § 21). So Meuander- The righteous runneth into it (the tower), and is safe; literally, is set on high; exalta- 'o ..-po1e11.Ta-y,-yv,I,cr,co,v B~, ,rplv ci,coiicra, cracpii,s 1,it"r, Vulgat.e; he reaches a position where AvTbs ,rov11p&s icrTt, 1Tt!TTEVCTCU 1Ca1Ciiis. he is set above the trouble or the danger Seneca, 'Medea,' 199- • that besets him. Thus St. Peter, speaking of Christ, exclaims (Acts iv. 12), "Neither "Qui statuit a.liquid, pa.rte inaudita altera, is there salvation in any other; for there is 1Equum licet statuerit, hand mquus erit." none other Name under heaven 1-(iven among Ver. 14.-The spirit of a man will sustain men, whereby we must be saved." "Prayer," hill in11rmity. That high property or faculty says Tertullian (' De Orat.,' 29), "is the wall of man called "spirit" enables the body to of faith, our ru-ms and weapons against man bear up against trouble and sickness (comp. who is always watching us. Therefore let eh. xvii. 22). The influence of the mind over us nernr go unarmed, night or day. Under the body, in a general sense, is hel'e ex- the arms of prayer let us guard the standard pressod. But taking" spirit" in the highest of our Leader; let us wait for the angel's sense, in the trichotomy of human nature, we trumpet, praying." Septuagint," From the see an intimation the.t the grace of God, the greatness of his might is the Name of the supematuro.l infusion of his presence, is that Lord; and rllllning unto it the righteous are which strengthens the man e.nd makes him ei:alted." able to endure with patience. But a Ver. 11.-In contrast with the Divine wounded (broken) spirit who can bearl tower of safety in the preceding verse is The body can, as it were, fall be.ck upon here brought forward the earthly refuge of the support of the spirit, when it is distressed the worldly man. The rich man's wealth and weakened; but when the spirit itself is hill strong city, The clause is repeated is broken, grieved, wee.ried, debilitated, it from eh. L 15, but with quite a ditferent has no resource, no higher faculty to which conclusion. And as an high we.11 in his own it can appeal, and it must succumb beneath c Jnceit. The rich man imagines his wealth the pressure. Here is a lesson, too, con- to be, as it were, an unassailable defence, cerning the treatment of others. We should to preserve him safe amid all the storrus of be more careful not to wound a brother's life. 'l,i;:i'?'p;i (bemaskitlw ), rendered "in his spirit than we are to refrain from doing a own conceit/' is, as Venetian has, EV tpav-ra.crlf bodily injury; the latter may be healed by auTOii, "in his imagination," masldth being medico.I applications; the former is more "an image or picture," as in Lev. xxvi. 1 ; severe in its effects, and is often irremedi- Ezek. viii 12; but see on eh. xxv. 11. Aben able. In the first clause, n~,, "spirit," is Ezra brings out the opposition between the masculine, in the second it is feminine, in- rncure and stable trust of the righteous in timating by the change of gendet· that in the Lord's protection, and the confidence the former case it is a manly properly, ,. of the rich worldling in hie possessions, virile moral quality, in the latter it hns which is only imaginary and delusive. become weakened and depressed through V ulgate, Et quasi muros validus circumdans affliction. Septuagint, "A prudent servant eum, '' Like a strong wall surrounding him;" soothes a man's w1·u.th; but a man of faint Septuagint, "And its glory (6&{11.) grently heart (o>..,-y&i/Juxov) who will endure?" The overshadows him;" i.e. tile pomp and splen- LXX. take "spirit" in the sense of anger, dour of his wealth are his protection, or and "infirmity " e.s standing for a servant, merely paint him like a picture, having no though where they find " prudent" i11 real substance. The commentators explain difficult to say. Vulgate, Spiritum vero ad ihe word ,..-,cr1e,cl.(u in both senses. irascendum f acilem, quis poterit 6Ustinere? Ver. 12.-(Comp. eh. xvi. 18; xv. 33; The Latin interpreter takes one form of where the maxims are found in almost the weakness of spirit, viz. irascibility, as his same words.) interpretation of ;itt::ii, "wounded." St. Ver. 13.-He that anawereth a. matter, etc. Gregory (' Moral.,' v. 78) has yet another 'fhus Ecclus. xi. 8, "Answer not before version, "Who co.n dwell with a mon whose thou haet heard the cause; neither interrupt spirit is ready to wrath?" o.clcling, "For he men in the midst of their talk.'' A romi- thnt does not regulate his feelings by tbu CII, X VIII, 1-24,] THE PROVERBS. 3:il