The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 547

te.stes of the leech is found elsewhere. Thus "Fire i~ ne,:er satisfied with fuel; nor the 'fheocritue, 'Idyll.,' ii. 55- ocean with nvers; nor death with all crea- At, u!, fp,,,1 /J.111upl, 'TI µ.•11 µ.l>.u11 '" xpobi tures; nor bright-eyed women with men." ..1,,. .. Ver, 17.-This is an independent proverb 'Eµ.,p~i .:.1 >.1µ.11a.-r1s G.1rui, l,c {J31Mu 1rl1r1J11<us; only connected with the preceding by being founded on an allusion to an animal. The And Ple.utue, 'Epidic.,' ii. 2. 5- eye that ~ocketh at hie father. The eye ia "Jam ego me convortam in hirudinem atque ~amed a.a the mind's instmment for express- Eorum exsugebo se.nguinem, !ng scorn a~d insubordination; it is the Senati qui columeu cluent." md~x to the mner feeling; and look may be as emful ~ action. And despiseth to obey his Ewald and others find traces of mutilation mother; i.e. holds obedience to hie mother in this proverb, and endeavour 'to supply to be a thing of no importance whatever. what is lost in various ways; but the text as it stands is intelligible, and needs no The word translated "to obey" (nnp•~) is addition. 'fhe rest of the verse is an appli- rendered b~ St,'.Jerome partum; by others, cation of the truth first stated. The type "weakness, or "wrinkles " or "old age" of cupidity there enunciated ie instanced as Septuagint, -yijpus. Bdt etymology h~s and exemplified in four special cases. There led most modern commentators to give the are three things tho.t a.re never se.tiefled. sense of "obedience" (see Gen. xlix. 10). And then a corrective climax is addressed. The ra.vens of the valley shall piok it out. j"ea, four things say not, It is enough. The Such e.n undutiful son shall die a violent four in the followiµg verse are divided into death; his corpse shall lie nnbnried and two p~us two. Septuagint, "The leech had !he birds of prey shall feed upon hi~. It three daughters dearly beloved, and these is well. known that ravens, vultures, and three did not satisfy her, and the fourth we.a other birds that live on carrion first attack not contented to say, Enough." !he eyes of their prey ; and in our own Ver. 16.-The four insatiable things are islands we are told crows and birds of this now named: first, the grave, sheol ( eh. so~t will fix on the eyes of young or sickly xxvii. 20), which can never be filled with ~mme.le; <:J~rn. a Lapide quotes Catullus, its victims. Horace talks of a man e.s- Carm., cvu1. 5- " Victima nil mieere.ntis Orci." " Effossos oculos voret atro gutture corvus (' Carin.,' ii. 8. 24.) Intestina canes, cetera membra lupi." ' And Heeiod (' Theog.,' 456) of He.des 11s- "His eyes, plucked out, let croaking ro.vens gorge, N11>.,h ij-rop lxow. Hie bowels dogs, bis limbs the greedy " A heart possessing that no pity knows." wolves." 'fhe second U1ing is the barren womb· "the "The valley," or brook, reminds one of closing of the womb," as Gen. xx. 18; Isa. Elijah's mir!ICulous support (l Kings xvii. lxvi. 9. The burning desire for children 4). Young eagles. The nes!.er must here characteristic of an Israelitish wife, is her~ mean one of the vulture tribe, as eagles do denoted, like the passionate cry of Raebel not feed on carrion (but see Job xxxix. 30), to Jacob," Give me children, or else I die" St. Gregory (' l\Iornl.,' xviii. 4!l) npplies tbo (Gen. xxx. 1). The barren woman, says proverb thus: "' The eye tho.t sneerctb at Corn. b. Lapide," concubitus magie eat avida hie fo.ther, and deepiseth the tmvail of bis qunm ceterm, tum propter desiderium mother, lo I the ro.vens from the torrents habendm prolis, tum quod fmcundm et e_ball pick it _out.' For bad men, while they gmvidm naturaliter non appetant concubi- )md lnult ,n_th the judgmcnte of God, do tum." The third insatiable thing is the sucor at their Father;' and heretics of nil earth that is not filled (satisfied) with water; sorts, ~hilst in mocking they contemn the the parched and thirsty soil which no amount preo.chmg of holy Cirnrch urn! ·her fruit- of water can satisfy, which drinks in all that fulnos_s, what elso is this but that they is poured upon it and is not benefited, what 'despise tho travail of thoir mother' ? whom Virgil (' Georg.,' i. 114) calls "bibulll wo not unjustly co.ll tho mother of them a~ arena." The fourth is the fire thnt so.ith well, because from the so.me they come forth not, It is enough; the " devouring element," who speak ago.inst the so.me." ' as the newspapers term it. The more you Vers.18-20.-A proverb concerning four heap on fire, the more material you supply, inscrutable things, connected with the last the fiercer it rages. Septuagint, " Hudes, by mention of the eagle. and the love of woman, and eo.rth not satis- fied with water, and water, ancl fire, will not Ver. 18.-There be three things which e.r& say, It suffioeth." Cheyne and others too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know quote from the Sanscrit • Hitopadeea,' not. The i;reat point ia the fourth, to which  THE PROVERBS. [OH. XXX, 1-33.