The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 376

and thou shalt be satisfied with bread, translated, '' hold him in pledge;" i.e. seize These words seem to connect this olause with his person for the sake of the strn.ngers for ver. 12. God gives the faculty, but man whom ho has stood security, so 611 not to must make due use thereof. The gnomist suffer loss from them. The Le.w ende1Lvoured urges, "Do noL slumber at your post, or sit to secure lending to needy brethren without iown idly waiting-; but be up and doing, be interest (see Pa. xv. 5; Ezek. xviii. 8, 13, wakeful and diligent, and then you shall etc.; xxii. 12); but it allowed the creditor to prosper." secure hi1~1se1r by te.kiug pledges of his Ver. 14.-It. is nsught, it is naught, saith debtor, while 1t regulated this system so as the buyer. The purchaser depreciates the to obviate most of its severity and oppressive- goods which he wants, in order to lower the ness (seo the restrictions in Exod. xxii. price demanded-a practice as common now 26, etc.; Deut. xxiv. 6, 12, etc.), "Where the as in old time. "I don't want it, I don't debtor po~scsscd nothing which he could want it." says the Spanish friar; "but drop pledge, he gsve the personal security of it into my hood." The Scotch say, "He a friend. This we.a IL very formal proceed- that lacks (disparages) my mare would buy ing. The surety gave his h1md both to the my mare" (Kelly). But when he is gone debtor and to the oreditor before an assembly his way, then he boasteth. When he has legally couvened, be deposited e. pledge, e.nd. completed his purchase e.nd obtained the in e.ccorde.nce with this twofold promise, was goods at his own price, he boasts how he has regarded by the creditor in just the same tricked the seller. The LXX. omits vers. light as the debtor himself, and treated 14---19. accordingly. If the debtor, or in bis place Ver. 15.-There is gold, and a multitude the snrety, was unable to pay the debt when of rubies. For peninim, which is rendered it fell due, he was entirely e.t the mercy of "rubies,,, "pea.:-ls," or •· coral," see on eh. the creditor. The authorities troubled iii. 15. There is gold which is precious, themselves bnt little a.bout these relations, and there is abundance of pearls which are and the le.w, so far as it is preserved to us, still more valuable. But the lips of know- gave no directions in the matter. We see, ledge are a precious jewel, and worth more however, from many allusions and ne.rrati ves, than all. We had the expression," lips of what harsh forms these relations e.ctnally knowledge," in eh. xiv. 7; it means lips that took, especially in later times, when the utter wisdom. Keli, often translated "jewel" ancient national brotherly love which the in the Authorized Version, also bears the Law presupposed was more e.nd more dying meaning of "vessel," "utensil." So here out. The creditor conld not only forcibly the Vulgate, 'Das pretiosum; and the wise appropriate e.11 the movable, bnt also the man's lips a.re called e. vessel because they fixed property, including the hereditary contain and distribute the wisdom that is estate (this at least till its redemption in within. (On the excellence and value of the year of jubilee), nay, he could even (if wisdom. see eh. iiL 14, etc.; viiL 11, etc.) he could find nothing else of value) carry Connecting thia with the preceding verse, off as e. prisoner the body of his debtor, or we are led to ihe thought of buying, and of his wife and ehild, to employ them in his the Lord's parable of the merchant seeking service, though this could only he done for good! y pearls, and bartering e.ll his wee.] th a definite period," (Ewald, • Antiquities,' p. to gain possession of a worthy jewel (Matt. 184, etc., tre.nsl.). xiii. 45, etc.). Ver. 17.-Bree.d of deceit is sweet to a Ver. 16.-Take his garment that is surety msn; Revised Version, bread of falsehood; for a stranger. The maxim is repeated in i.e. bread gained without le.hour, or by eh. xxvii. 13 ; and warnings age.inst surety- nnrighteous means (comp. eh. x. 2). This is ship a.re found in eh. vi. 1, etc.; xi. 15; xvii. agreeable bece.useit is easily won, and has the 18; xxii.. 26, etc. The second portion of relish of forbidden fruit. "Wickedness is the cle.nse is translated also, "For he is sweet in his mouth" (Job xx. 12). But surety for another," If a man is so weak afterwards hie mouth shall be filled with and foolish as to become security for any gravel. He will find in his "bread" no one, and is unable to ma.ke good his engaged nourishment, but rather discomfort e.nd posi- payment, let him lose his garment which tive injury (comp. Job xx. H). The expres- the creditor would seize: his imprudence sion, "to eat gravel," is intimated in Lam. mnst bring its own punishment. And take iii. 16, "He hath broken my teeth with a pledge of him for a strange woman. The gravel-Btones;" it implies grievous diiii1p- Authorized Version probably adopts this pointment and unprofitableuess. See hefe rendering in conformity with eh. xxvii 13, a warning age.inst evil plcasures- where it occurs in the text, as here in the margin (the:Keri). But the Khetib has, "for 4'Eii-y' '7/Bovrw ,plpourrav iirr'l'Epop 1J>..d.1J11r. strangers,'' which seems to be the original "Sperne voluptatc8: nocet empta. dolore teading; and the first words ought to be voluptas." OB', U. 1-30,] THE PROVERBS. 381 --·---------- Oort euppoeeR that the gnome in the text is of God shall exact from the unnatural derived from a rirldlo, which o.sked, "What child. The legal penalty may be seen .is sweot at first, but a.fterwarcls like sa.ncl in (Exod. xxi. 17; Lev. xx. 9); but this we.a the mouth?" probably seldom or never carried into Ver. 18.-Every purpose is established by execution (comp. l\iatt. xv. 4; Mark vii. oouusel (comp. oh. xv. 22, where eee note). 10). Hill lamp shall be put out in obsoure Tbe Tnlmucl saye, "Even the most pruclent ( the blackest) darkuess ( comp. eh. xiii. 9), of men neccls friends' counsels;" nnd none The expression is pe<mliar; it is literally, but tho most conceited would deem himself according to the Khetib, In the apple of the superior to advice, or wouhl fa.ii to allow eye of dar?mess, as in eh. vii. 9; i.e. in the that, as the Vulgato puts it, cogitationeB very centre of darkness; he will find consiliis roborantur. 'l'his is true in all himself surrounded on all sides by midnight ;relations of life, in great and small mattere darkness, without escape, with no hope of alike, in peace, and, as our moralist adds, Divine protection. "Lamp" is a metaphor in war. With good advice ma.ke war; applied to the bodily and the spiritual life, Vulgate, Gubernaculis tractanda sunt'bella; to happiness and prosperity, to e. man's Revised Version, By wise guidance mal:e fame and reputation, to a man's posterity; thou war. The word here used is talcebuloth, and all these senses may be involved in for which see note, eh. i. 5. It is a maritime the denunciation of the disobedient and metaphor, rightly retained by tho Vulgate, stubborn child. He shall suffer in body and might be rendered "pilotings,'' "steer- and son!, in character, in fortune, in hie ings." War is a necessary evil, but it must children. His fate is the exact counterpart be undertaken prudently and with a due of the blessing promised in the Law. consideration of circumstances, means, etc. Septuagint, "The lamp of him that revileth Our Lord illustrates the necessity of due father and motlier shall be extinguished, circumspection in following him by the case and the pupils of his eyes shall behold of a threatened conflict between two con- darkness." Talmud, "Whosoever abandons tending kings (Luke xiv. 31, etc.). Grotius his parent.'! means his body to become the quotes the gnome- prey of scorpions." Cato, 'Dist.,' iii. 23-- rv&µa., 1rAEOP t<pa:rovrrw ',) rralvos x•p&v. " Dilige non regra caros pieta.te pe.rentee; "Than strength of hands availeth counsel Nee matrem offendas, dum vis banns esse more .., parenti." To which we may add- One of the evil generations denounced by BovJ,.ijs -yap op9ijs o.Ja~v l&rr4>11.Alrr.,.•po~. Agur (eh. x:u:. 11) is the.t which ourseth parents. "GooJ ·counsel is the safest thing of e.11." Ver. 21.-An inheritance may be gotten (Comp. eh. xxiv. 6, where the hemistich is hastily e.t the beginning-or, which in the re-echoed.) beginning is obtained in ha.ste-but the end , Ver. ll).-Ke that goeth a.bout as e. tale- thereof shall not be blessed ; or, its end shall bearer revea,1.eth aecrets.. Almost the se.me Mt be blessed. The Khetib gives n71;~1?, proverb occurs in eh. xi. 13. The gadding which (comp. Zech. xi. 8) may mee.n gossiper is sure to let out any secret "detested,'~ but this gives no sense: it is entrusted to him; thc,refore, it is implied, better, with the Keri, to reple.ce kheth with be careful in what you se.y to him. Meddlo he, and read n~,:,~p (meboheleth), "hastened," not with him that fle.tteroth with his lips; rather, that openeth ivida his lips-that "hastily acquired" (see eh. xiii. 11, Septua- cannot keep· hie mouth shut, a babbler, as gint). The maxim, taken in connection eh. xiii. 3 (where see note). The Vulgate with' the preceding verse, mRy apply to a erroneously makes one sentence of tho bad son who thinks his pa.rents live too verse " With him who reveals secrete, and long, and by violence robs them of their wo.lk;th deceitfully, and opcncth wide his possessions ; or to one who, like the prodig~l lips, have no <l~alings." 'l'~l'?ud, "When in the parable, demands prematurely hi8 I utter e. word, 1t hath domrn10n over me; portion of the paternal goods. But it may but when I utter it not, I have dominion also be taken generally as denouncing the over it." Says the Persian poet, "The fote of those who make haste to be rich, silent me.n bath his shoulders covered with being unscrupulous e.s to the means by tbe garment of security." Xenocrntes used which they gain weulth (see on eh. xxiii. 11 ; xxviii. 20, 22). A Greek gnome says to say the.t he sometimes wns ". sorry for having spoken, never for having kept roun<lly- silence" (Cahen). o~a,ls l1rJ,.oo-r11rr•v nx.!ws 3!,cczws tfw. Ver. 20.--This is o.n enforcement of the 'No righteous man e'er grew rich suddenly." fifth commandment, by denouncing the punishment whic4 the morl\l government Ver. 22.-Say not thou, I will recompense 388 THE PROVERBS. [dB, XX, 1-30,