The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 548

the thrro previous things leo.d up, all of them is guided ; nnd the fourth mystery is the being alike in this, that they leave no trace, incarnation of Jesus Obrist our Lord, when The facts are marvellous ; Agur feels like "the virgin (almah) conceived and bare a. Job," I have uttered that which I under- son" (Isa. vii. 14), when "a woman encom- ~tood not, things too wonderful for me, which passed II man (geber)" (Jer. x.ui. 22). We I knew not" (Job xiii. 3). can see the greater or less appropriateness Ver. 19.-The way of an eagle in the air, of such accommodation, but the proverb must You cannot by any outward sign know that have been received by contemporaries only an eagle bas passed this or that way. Wisd. in its literal sense, whatever were the inner Y. 11, "As when a bird bath flown through myste1-ies which the Holy Spirit wished to the air, there is no token of her way to be communicate thereby. fnuud," etQ.. The way of a serpent upon a Ver. 20.-This verse is a. kind of gloss or rock. The snake's mode of progression by illustration of the last thought of the pre- the !eYer-like motion of its ribs might well ceding verse, and seems not to have formed awake surprise, but the point is still I.be nn original part of the numerical proverb. tracklessness of its course. On sand or It might well be placed in a parenthesis. soft ground its movements might be traced Many commente.tors consider it to be e.n l,y the impression made, but this could not inti:rpolation. Such is the way of an be done on hard rock; it could push itself adulterous woman. What Agur had so.id along on such a surface without leaving any of e. man above, he now applies to the prac- track. The way of a ship in the midst (heart) tised adulteress, whose sin cannot be traced. of the sea; i.e. in the open sea. You can She eateth. This is a euphemism for the trace a ship's course while she is near land sin which she commits. •• Stolen waters are or within sight, hut when she reaches the sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant" open sea, you can follow her furrow no (eh. ix. 17; comp. eh. v. 15). And wipeth longer. Wisd. v. 10, "As a ship that her mouth, e.e if to lee.ve no trace of her passeth o,·er the waves of the water, which illicit repe.at. And saith, I have done no wben it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot wiokedness. As she has sinned in secret, be found, neither the pathway of the keel in and there is no outward proof of her guilt, tl1e waves." The way of a man (geber) with she boldly denies it. Septuagint, " Such is a maid (;1;:i',:t,t:;i); Septuagint, "The we.ye of the way of an adulterous woman, who, when 6 man in youth (iv J/EO'T7j'T1)." So Vulgate, she has committed the act, having we.shed Viam -r:i'Ti in adolescentia. But this is feeble, herself, says ahe has done nothing amiss." nnd almah is without doubt rightly rendered She forgets him who seeth in secret, and is "me.id," ",irgi n." The proverb so.ye that quite content to escape detection at man's the sinful act to which it alludes leaves no eyes, and to assume the character of a vir- outward sign by which it can generally be tuous wife, which popular report assigns to her. recognized; it escapes man's knowledge. Vera. 21-23.-Then follows a proverb This ia exemplified and confirmed in the concerDing four things which are iDtoler- following Yerse. It is not sufficient to refer e.ble, examples of incoDgruous associations the saying to the insidiouaarlsofthe seducer, or positions-two in the case of men, two in by which he sapa the principles and inflames the passions of his victim. The sin of the case of womeD. unche.atity is signified, which demands Ver. 21.-For three things the earth ii secrecy and affords no token of its commis- disquieted j better, under three things the sinn. 1Two of the above parallels, says earth doth tremble, a.a if oppressed 'by nn Cheyne, are given in a quatrain of a Vedic overwhelming burden. 'fhe form of expres- hymn to Varona- sion doea not allow ua to think of an ea1·th- •• The palh of ships across the ~ea, quake. "The earth" is equivo.leut to "the The soaring toagle's flight he knows." iahabitnnts thereof." And for four which it cannot bear j or, under four it cannot stand Some of the Fathers and earlier commenta- (comp. Amoa vii. 10). These four evils tors, and among modems, Bishop Words- destroy the comfort of social life, uproot the " orth, have not been content with the literal bonds of society, and endanger the safety of sense of this gnome, but have found in it, e. nation. ns in the others, deep spiritual mysteries. Ver. 22.-For a servant when he reigneth; Christ is tile great Eagle (Rev. xii. 14), or, under a slave when he becomelh lcing. This who ascended beyond human ken; the ser- stnrtling vicissitude was not uncommon in pent is tbe devil, who works his wily way in Ee.stern states; and even if the slave was sr·cret, and who tried to pass into the mind not preferred to regal power, he was often of Christ, who is the Rock; the ahip is the advanced by unwise favouritism to high Clrnrch, which preserves ita course a.mid position, for which be was wholly unfitted, tl,e we.vea of this troublesome world, though and which he used only to aggrandize him- we ca11not murk its strength or whither it si,lf at the expense and to the injury of others.  OIJ, XXX, 1-33.) THE PROVERBS. 577