Pro 15:24 | KD | STEP | Four proverbs of fundamentally different doctrines: 24 The man of understanding goeth upwards on a way of life, To depart from hell beneath. The way of life is one, ; (where, notwithstanding the want of the article, the idea is logically determined), although in itself forming a plurality of ארחות, Pro 2:19. “A way of life,” in the translation, is equivalent to a way which is a way of life. למעלה, upwards (as , where, in the doubtful question whether the spirit of a man at his death goes upwards, there yet lies the knowledge of the alternative), belongs, as the parallel משּׁאול מטּה shows, to ארח חיּים as virtual adj.: a way of life which leads upwards. And the ל of למשׂכּיל is that of possession, but not as of quiet possession (such belongs to him), but as personal activity, as in דּרך לו, he has a journey = he makes a journey, finds himself on a journey, 1Ki 18:27; for למען סוּר is not merely, as לסוּר, ; , the expression of the end and consequence, but of the subjective object, i.e. , the intention, and thus supposes an activity corresponding to this intention. The O.T. reveals heaven, i.e. , the state of the revelation of God in glory, yet not as the abode of saved men; the way of the dying leads, according to the O.T. representation, downwards into Sheôl; but the translations of Enoch and Elijah are facts which, establishing the possibility of an exception, break through the dark monotony of that representation, and, as among the Greeks the mysteries encouraged ἡδυστέρας ἐλπίδας, so in Israel the Chokma appears pointing the possessor of wisdom upwards, and begins to shed light on the darkness of Sheôl by the new great thoughts of a life of immortality, thus of a ζωὴ αἰώνιος ( ) ( Psychologie , p. 407ff.), now for the first time becoming prominent, but only as a foreboding and an enigma. The idea of the Sheôl opens the way for a change: the gathering place of all the living on this side begins to be the place of punishment for the godless ( ; ); the way leading upwards, εἰς τὴν ζωὴν, and that leading downwards, εἰς τὴν ἀπωλειαν (Mat 7:13.), come into direct contrast.

‏ Proverbs 15:24

Four proverbs of fundamentally different doctrines: 24 The man of understanding goeth upwards on a way of life, To depart from hell beneath.

The way of life is one, Pro 5:6; Psa 16:11 (where, notwithstanding the want of the article, the idea is logically determined), although in itself forming a plurality of ארחות, Pro 2:19. “A way of life,” in the translation, is equivalent to a way which is a way of life. למעלה, upwards (as Ecc 3:21, where, in the doubtful question whether the spirit of a man at his death goes upwards, there yet lies the knowledge of the alternative), belongs, as the parallel משּׁאול מטּה shows, to ארח חיּים as virtual adj.: a way of life which leads upwards. And the ל of למשׂכּיל is that of possession, but not as of quiet possession (such belongs to him), but as personal activity, as in דּרך לו, he has a journey = he makes a journey, finds himself on a journey, 1Ki 18:27; for למען סוּר is not merely, as לסוּר, Pro 13:14; Pro 14:27, the expression of the end and consequence, but of the subjective object, i.e., the intention, and thus supposes an activity corresponding to this intention. The O.T. reveals heaven, i.e., the state of the revelation of God in glory, yet not as the abode of saved men; the way of the dying leads, according to the O.T. representation, downwards into Sheôl; but the translations of Enoch and Elijah are facts which, establishing the possibility of an exception, break through the dark monotony of that representation, and, as among the Greeks the mysteries encouraged ἡδυστέρας ἐλπίδας, so in Israel the Chokma appears pointing the possessor of wisdom upwards, and begins to shed light on the darkness of Sheôl by the new great thoughts of a life of immortality, thus of a ζωὴ αἰώνιος (Pro 12:28) (Psychologie, p. 407ff.), now for the first time becoming prominent, but only as a foreboding and an enigma. The idea of the Sheôl opens the way for a change: the gathering place of all the living on this side begins to be the place of punishment for the godless (Pro 7:27; Pro 9:18); the way leading upwards, εἰς τὴν ζωὴν, and that leading downwards, εἰς τὴν ἀπωλειαν (Mat 7:13.), come into direct contrast.