The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 428

Yer. 26.-Give me thine heart, Do not being fo.st closen up ; just so these also, waste thy powers and affections on evil though ten tbousancl doctrines of so.I vntion objeols, but set tby soul with all its best sound in their eo.rs from o.11 quarters, hBving faculties ou me, Wisdom, who alone cau their soul preoccupied with tbis po.ssion, satisfy its desires and aspirations. There is stop their ears o.gainst all discourses of that an eloquent passage in a tract that has goue kiun. And they know it well who have by St. Bernard's name, though not written made the trild. But God forbid that you by him (' Epist. de Reg. Vitre Spirit.,' ii. should know it from aotue.l experience I " 1604, llab.), which is worth quoting: "Cor The LXX. has chBnged the allusion : " For nostrum nihil dignius perficere potest, quo.m a strange house is a pierced wine-jar (..-16os ut ei se restituat a quo factum est: et hoe a -r<TPTll'•vos), and a strange well is narrow," nobis Domin us expetit dicens, ' Fili, da mihi where the idea seems to be that the private cor tuum.' Tune siquidem cor hominum well, which is dug for the convenience of Deo datur, quando omnis cogitatio termi- one family only, i~ not to be relied upon, natur in eum, gyrat et circumtlectitur super and will yield not enough to supply others' eum, et nihil vult possidere prreter eum. wants. Hence would arise a warning age.inst Sicqne colligato Bibi animo, eum diligit, coveting e. neighbour's wife. There is e. ut sine ipso amarus sit omnis amor. Nee Greek proverb about drawing wine into aliud dixerim cor Domino dare, quam ipsum pierced jars (Xen., '<Econ.,' vii. 40). captivare in omne obsequium ejus, et ita Ver. 28.-She also lieth in wait as for a voluntati ejus ex toto supponere, ut nibil prey. "Yee., she [eh. xxii. 19] lieth in aliud velit, quam quod noverit eum velle." wait," as is graphically described in eh. vii. Let thine eyes observe my ways; keep (comp. Jer. iii. 2). Chetheph is better taken, closely to the paths of virtue which I teach not as "prey," but in a concrete sense as thee, especially the path of purity, as the the person who snatches it, the robber. next verse shows. Vulgate, Vias meas Vulgate, lnBidiatur in via quasi latro (comp. cuatodiant; Septuagint, 'El'a.s 65ol,s -r11pel• Ps. x. 9). And inoreaseth the transgressors -rrMTa.v. This is the reading of the Keri, among men. The Greek and Latin versions i1J"n1'1; the Khetib, which Delitzsilh and have taken 9•1?i, as meaning "kills," "de- othe~s prefer, reads ~;~-:,, "deligllt in" my stroys." But the verb yasaph always means ways. "to add," here "to multiply." The specie.I Ver. 27.-The need of the emphatic in- transgression indicated is treachery or faith- junction iu ver. 26 is exemplified by the lessness. The harlot leads her victim to be dangers of impurity. A deep ditch; as eh. faithless to his God, his wife, his pe.ren ts, =ii. H. A strange woman is a narrow pit. his tutor, his master. Septuagint, "For he (For "strange woman," equivalent to "har- shall perish suddenly, and every trans- lot," see on eh. ii. 16.) A narrow pit is one gressor shall be destroyed.'' with e. narrow mouth, from which, if one falls into it, it is difficult to extricate one's Vere. 29-35.-Here follows o. mashal self. The verse indicates the seductive ode or song on the subject of drunkenness, no.tore of the vice of uncha.Rtity: how easy which is closely connected with the sin it is to be led iuto it I how ditticult to rise mentioned in the previous lines. from it I ThllB St. Cbrysostom (' Hom. xi. in I Cor.'), " When by unclean desire the Ver. 29.-Who hath woet who hath l!Onl is made captive, even as a cloud and sorrowt Hebrew, lemi oi, lemi abo,, where mist darken the eyes of the body, so that oi and aboi are interjections of pain or grief. desire intercepts the foresight of the mind, So Venetian, -rlv, a.t, -rlv, 1/>•ii; Hevised Ver- and suffers no one to see any dbtance before sion margin, Who liath Oh ? who hat/1 Alas 1 him, either precipice, or hell, or fear; but The Vulgate bas stumbled e.t the second thenceforth, having that deceit as a tyrant expressiou, which is an /i,ra.t Aey&}'evov, and over him, be comes to be easily vanquished resolving it into two words, translo.tes, Cujus by sin ; and there is raised up before his patri vm 1 Contentions; the bra.wling and eyes as it were a partition wall, and no strife lo which drunkenness leads (eh. xx:. l). windows in it, which suffers not the ray of Babbling; 1:l'i? (siach) is rather" meditation," righteousness to slline in upon the mind, "sorrowful thought" showing itself in com- the absurd conceits of lust enclosing it as plaining, regret for lost fortune, ruined with a rampart on all sides. And then, he11lth, alienated friends. Others render and from that time forward, the unchaste "misery," "penury.'' St. Jcromo's fovere woman is everywhere meeting him-before is derived from e. different rending. The his eyes, before his mind, before his LXX. has ,cplo-ELs, "lawsuits," a116la.1 ,ea.I thoughts, in station and presence. And as Alo-xa.•, "disgust and gossipings." Wonnds the blind, although they stand_ at high without oause; wounds which might he.vo noon beneath the very central point of the been avoided, the result of quarrels in which heaveu, receive not the light, their eyes a sober mo.n would nover have engaged. 011, XXIII, 1-35.] THE PROVERBS. 445