The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 344

is R friend, who being turned to enmity will whether by kind cmd pure and edifying con- also discover thy disgraceful strife," i.e. will versation they contribute health and life to disclose the quarrel which Recording to his themselves and others, or whether by foul, representRtion will 1·edound to thy discredit. calumnious, corrupling language they in- The Yulgate and Septuagint have followed volve themselves and others in mortal sin. a different reading from that of the present For "they that love it," the Septuao-int O hos, Hebrew tei.t: "Brother aided by brother oi Kp«Tovnu aurijs, " they who get the is like a strong Rnd high city, and he is mastery over it." powerful as a well-founded palace," Sep- Ver. 22.-Whoso flndeth a wife flndeth a t.uagint. The lfLBt clause is rendered in the good thing. A good wife is meant (as the Yulgat.e, Et judicia quasi vectes urbium; Septuttgint hns it, ;,vvaiica. u-,a9~v; mulierem where judicia means "lawsuits," legal dis- bonam, Vulgate), a virtuous, prudent help- putes ; these bar out friendship. The first mate, as iu eh. xii. 4 ; xix. 14 ; and xxxi. member of the sentence in the GrPek and The epithet is omitted, !Jecause the more.list Latin recalls Eccles. iv. 9, etc., "Two are is thinking of the ideal wife, the one whose better than one; because they have a goo<l union ,is blessed, who alone deserves the reward for their labour," etc. St. Chrysostom, holy nttme of wife. Thus in ver. 4 we had commenting on Eph. iv. 3 (' Hom.,' ix.), the ideal man spoken of. Septuagint, ,ip• writes, "A glorious bond is this; with this xcl.p,ras, " findeth graces," viz. peace, union, bond let us bind ourselves together alike to plenty, order (see a different view, Eccles. one another and to God. This is a bond vii. 26-28). And obtaineth favour of the that bruises not, nor cramps the hands it Lord ( eh. viii. 35; xii. 2); or, hath obtained binds, but it leaves them free, and gives (eh. iii. 13), as shown by the consort whom them ample play and greater energy than God has given him. Ratson, "good will," those whicll are at liberty. The strong, if "favour," is rendered by the Septuagint lle be bound to the weak, will support him, 1>..ap&.-77-ra, and by the Vulgate, jucunditatem, and not suffer him to perish; and if again "cheerfulness," "joyousness" (see on eh. xix. he be tied to the indolent, he will rather 12). Ecclus. xxvi. 1, etc., " Blessed is the rouse and animate. • Brother helped by man that bath a good wife, for the number of brother,' it is said, ' is ns a strong city.' his days shall be double. A virtuous (dvllp,la) This chain no distance of place can inter- wowan rejoiceth her husband, and he shall rupt, neither heaven, nor earth, nor death, fulfil the years of his life in peace. A good nor anything else, but it is more powerful wife is a good portion which shall be given and stronger than all things." in the portion of them that fear the Lord." Ver. 20.-With the first clause, comp. eh. "A good wife,'' says the Talmud," is e. good xiL 14, and with the second, eh. xiii. 2. A gift; she shall be given to a man that feareth man's belly; i.e. himself, his mind and body, God." Aud again, "God did not mo.ko equivalent to shall he be filled, or satisfied, woman from man's head, that she should in the second claUJle. A man must accept not 1ule over him; nor from his feet, that the consequences of his words, good or evil. she should not be his slave ; but from his The next verae explains this. side, tbo.t she should be near his heart" Ver. 21.-Death and life are in the power (Dukes, p. 69). A Greek gnome runs- of the tongue; literally, in the hand of tlie ruJ/1/ 61Kala .-oii fllou 1Tc.,.-77pl11. tongue. Tbe tongue, according as it is_ used, deals forth life or death ; for speech IS the The Septuagint and Vulgate here introduce picture of the mind ( comp. eh. xii. 18; xxvi. a paragraph which is not in the Hebrew, 28). The vast importance of our words may and only partly in the Syriac. It seems to be learned from Jas. iii.; and our blessed be e. further explanation of the statement in Lord says expressly (Matt. xii. 36, etc.), the text, founded on the practice prevalent " Every idle word that men shall speak, they at the time when the Septuagint Version was shall give account thereof in the day of composed, which appears to have made judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be divorce a recognized necessity in the c11se jUBtified, and by thy words tbou s!Jalt be con- of o.dullery : " He who casteth away a good <lewned." Hence the gnome- wife casteth away good things; but he who retaineth an adulteress is a fool and im- r>..wutTa. .,.tx:11, -y}l.ri,tTtTa. llafµ,,w, pious." The advice of Siracides concerning intimating that the tongue is the real con- a wicked wife is austere: " If she go not as troller of man's d08tiny ; and another- thou wouldest have her, cnt her off from A&-,rp /l1ouct1Ta.1 {3pOTWII {3/os µovrp, thy flesh" (Ecclus. xxv. 26). Nothing is here so.id about the marriage of divorced "By words alone is life of mortals swayed," persons; but the absolute indissolubility of And they that love it (the tongue) shall eat the marriage bond was never held among the fruit thereof. They who use it much the Jews, a certain laxity being allowed Juust abide the consequences of their words, because of the hardness of their heart (MP.\t. OU, XVIII, 1-24.] THE PROVERBS, 363