The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 463

"to whom thou hast come with a request deal with him privately in e. friendly manner.' for preferment;" "into whose august pre- And discover not e. secret to another; rather, sence thou hast been admitted, so as to see the secret of aiwther. Do not bring in a his face" (2 Sam. xiv. 24); "who knows third party, or make use of anythiog en- all about thee, and will thus make thee feel tra~ tetl to you by another person, or of thy humiliatiou all the more." Ilut nadib, which you have become privately informed, rendered ·• priuoc," is not the king, but any in order to support your cause. noble or E[I'eat man; and what the maxim Yer. 10.-Lest he that heareth it put thee rueans is this-that it is wise to save yoUl'- to shame ; i.e. lest any one, not the offended self from the morlification of being turned neighbour only, who hears how treacheroua out of a place which you have knowingly you have been, makes your proceediog usurped. Your own eyes see that he is in known and cries shame upon you. And the company; you are aware of what is his thine infamy turn not away. The stigma proper position ; you have occupied a post attached to you be never obliterated. Thus which belongs to another; justly you are Siracides : " Whoso discoveretb secrets loseth removed, and all present witness your his credit; and shall never fiod friend to his humiliation. The moralist knew that the mind. Love thy friend, and be faithful bad spirit of pride was fostered and encour- unto him: but if thou bewrayest his secrets, aged by every act of self-assertion ; hence follow no more after him. For as a man the importance of his warning. The Sep- hath destroyed his enemy ; so hast thou lost tuagint makes a separate sentence of these the love of thy neighbour" (Ecclus. xxvii. last words," Speak thou of what thine eyes 16, etc.; comp. also xxii. 22). The motive saw." or, perhaps, like St. Jerome, the presented in our text is not the highest, Syriac, a11d Symmachus, attach them to being grounded on the fear of shame and the next Yerse. disgrace in men's eyes ; but it is a very Ver. 8.-A tristich with no parallelism. potent incentive to right action, and the Go not forth hastily to strive. The idea is moralist has good reason for employing it. either of one entering into litigation with That it does not reach to the height of undue haste, or of one hurrying to meet an Christian morality is obvious. The gnome adversary. St. Jerome, taking in the final is thus given in the Greek: "When thy worils of the previous verse, renders, Qum friend shall reproach thee, retreat backward, • viderunt oculi tui, ne proferas in jurgio cito, despise him not, lest thy friend reproach "What thioe eyes have seen reveal not thee still; 0.nd so thy quarrel antl enmity hastily in a quarrel." This is like ver. 9 shall not pass away, but shall be to thee below, and Christ's injunction, "If thy like death." Then tlie LXX. adds e. parn- brother shall trespass agnilliit thee, go and graph, reproduced partly by St. Jerome, tell him his fault between thee and him "Kindness and friendship set 11 man free alone" (lfatt. xviii 15). Lest thou know (,>..,v/1,po'i) ; preserve thou these, that not what to do in the end thereof. The thou become not liable to reproach ( <1rov,l- Hebrew is elliptical, "Lest by chance ()~) o,u-ros, ezprobabilis); hut guard thy ways thou do something (bad, humiliating) in the in a conciliating spirit (,b<Tvva.Mcl1<-rws)." end thereof." But Delitzsch, Nowack, e.ntl Ver. 11.-One of the emblematical <lie' others consider the sentence as ioterrogative tichci1 in which this collection is rich. .a. (as I Sam. xx. 10), and translate," '.rhat it word fitly spoken. 1•~9tl-SJ? may be trans- may not be said in the end thereof, What lated "in due season," or "upon its wheels" wilt thou do?" Either way, the warning (Venetinn, /1rl' ,,-f;,v ,,-poxwv a.11-rijs). Iu the comes to this-Do not enter hastily upon latter case the phrase may mean a word strife of any kind, lest thou be utterly at quickly formed, or moving easily, spoken a loss what to do. When th.y neighbour ore rotundo, or a speedy a.newer. But tlie bath put thee to shame, by putting thee in metnphor is unusunl e.nd inappropriate; and the wrong, gaining his caUBe, or getting the it is best to understo.nd e. word spoken victory over thee in some way. Septuagint, under due consideration of time and place. "Fall not quickly into a contest, lest thou Vulgate, Qui loquitur verbum in tempore repent at the last." There is an English suo; Aquila and 'l'heodotion, l1rl a.pµ6(ovCT11• proverb, "Anger begins with folly and ends a.b'T<jj, "in ciroumsti1nccs that suit it; " tho with repentance;" and •• Haste is tho begin- Septuagint hns simply olhws. Is like apples ning of wrath, its end is repentance." of gold in pictures of silver. In these em- Vere. 9, 10.-A tetrastich without parallel- blematical distichs the words, " is like,"' in the Authorized Version, are an insertion. ism, connected with the preceding maxim. The Hebrew places the two idcns merely Ver. 9.-Debate thy ea.use with thy neigh- in sequence; the objeot with which some- bour himself' (Matt. xviii. 15; see on ver. 8). thing is compared usuiilly coming before If you ltave any quarrel with a neil-(hbour, that which is compared with it, 11s here. or are drawn iut:, u controversy witll liiw, "Apples of golu-u. word fitly spoken" (B•) on. xxv. 1-28.] THE PROVERBS. 481