The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 375

expression means that no one can pride µarr,v) a young man will be fettered in himself on being eeoure from yielding to company with a holy man, and hia way will temptation, however clean for a time hie be straight," which seems to mean that a ooneoience may be. The verse, therefore, good man will restrain the reckless doings offers e. stern corrective of two grievous of a giddy youth, and will lead him into spiritual errors-presumption and apathy. better courses. Ver. 10.-Divers weights, and divers Ver. 12.-The hearing ear, and the seeing measures; literally, tdone and Btone, ephah eye, the Lord bath made even both of them. and ephah. The atones were uaed for weigh- 'fhis apothegm, which seems to be nothing ing ; dishonest traders kept them of different but a trite truism, brings to notice many weights, and also measures of different important consequences. First, there is capacities, substituting one for the other in the result noted in Pa. xciv. 9, "He that order to defraud unwary customers. The planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that Septuagint makes this plain by rendering, formed the eye, shall he not see ? " Henoo "A weight great and sme.11, and meaaurea we learn the sleepleaa providence of God. double" (see on eh. xi. 1 and xvi. 11 ; and So 'Pirke A both,' "Know that which is comp. ver. 23). The ephah was a dry above thee, an eye that aeeth all, an ear that measure, being one-tenth of the homer, and heareth all." We learn also that all things occupying the same position in solids as the are directed and overruled by God (comp. bath did in liquids. It equalled about three eh. xv. 3; xvi. 4). Then there ie the thought peoka of our measure. :Both of them are that these powers of ours, being the gift of alike abomination to the Lord (eh. xvii. 15; God, should be used piously and in God's comp. Lev. xix. 36; Deut. xxv. 13, eto.); service. " Mine ea.re hast thou opened . . . Septuagint, "Are impure before the Lord, Lo, I come ... I delight to do thy will, 0 even both of them, and he who doeth them." my God" (Ps. xl. 6, etc.). The eye should Pseudo-Bernard ('De Pass. Dom.,' xvii.), be blind, the ear deaf, to all that might applying the passage mvstice.lly, teaches defile or excite to evil (aee Isa. xxxiii. 15). that a man may be said 'to keep a double But it ia the Lord alone that enables the measure, who, being conscious of his own spiritual organs to receive the wondrous evil che.racter, endeavours toappearrighteoua things of God's Law; they must be educated to others; who, aa he puta it, '' Suo judicio by grace to enable them to perform their terrm proximus eat, et aliis cupit elevatus proper functions. "God hath given us eyes," videri." Others, connecting this verse in aaya St. Chrysostom (' Hom. =ii. in 1 thought with the preceding, aee in it a Cor.'), '' not tho.t we may look wantonly, but warning against judging a neighbour by that, admiring hia handiwork, we may wor- e. standard which wo do not apply to our- ship the Cree.tor. And tho.t this is the use selves. The Septuagint Version arranges of our eyes is evident from the things which the matter from ver. 10 onwards differently are aeen. For the lustre of the sun and of from the Hebrew, omitting vers. 14-19, and the sky we see from e.n immeasurable dis- placing vers. 10-13 after ver. 22. tance, but o. woman's beauty one cannot Ver. 11.-Even e. child is known (malceth discern so far oft'. Seest thou that for thia him8elf knoum) by hia doings. (For " even " end oar eye was chiefly given? Ago.in, he (gam), see on eh. xvii. 26.) A child is open, me.de the ear, that we should entertain not simple, and straightforward in his actions ; blasphemous words, but saving doctrines. he has not the reserves and concealments Wherefore you see, when it receives any- which men practise, so you see by his thing dissonant, both our soul shudders o.nd conduct what hia real chare.oter and dis- our very body also. And if we hear anything position are. Ewald takes ,,',',yt, in the cruel or merciless, again our flesh creeps ; sense of "play," "go.mes ; " but it aeema but if anytlling decorous and kind, we even never to have thia meaning, and there is no exult and rejoice.'' "He that bath ears to need to change the usual signification. The hear, let him hear." Septuagint," Tile ear he.bits of a life are learned in early age. heareth and the eye aeeth, and both a.re the The boy ia father of the man. Delitzsch works of the Lord.'' quotes the German proverbs, ",Vhat means Ver. 13.-Love not sleep, lest thou ~ e to become e. hook bends itself early," nnd to poverty (see eh. vi. 9, etc.). The faLS of '' What means to become e. thorn sharpens the sluggard is handled ago.in in oh. xxiii itself early; " and the Aro.mman, " That 21, as often before; e.g. eh. xii. 11 ; xix. 15 which will become e. gourd ahowe itself in The LXX., to.king nm• (shenah), "sleep,' the bud." Whether hia work be pure as perhaps connected with the verb i1)~ (" olean," as ver. 9 and eh. xvi. 2), and (shanah), translate, "Love not to roil, thali whether it be right, Hie conduct will ahow thou be not exalted (tva µ~ •~ap&fis)," i.e. ihne much, and will help one to prognosti- probably, "Do not calumniate others in cate the future. Septuagint (according to order to raise yourself;" others tre.ush1te, the Vatican), "In hia pursuits (/irm16eu• " lest thou be out off." Open thine eyes, PROVE RDS, 2 o  386 THE PROVERBS. [cu. :x.x. 1-30,