Pro 13:16-25 | KD | STEP | Every prudent man acteth with understanding; But a fool spreadeth abroad folly. Hitzig reads, with the Syr. (but not the Targ.) and Jerome, כּל ( omnia agit ), but contrary to the Hebr. syntax. The כּל־ is not feeble and useless, but means that he always acts בּדּעת, mit Bedacht [with judgment] ( opp . בּבלי דעת, inconsulto , ; ), while on the contrary the fool displays folly. and serve to explain both members of the verse. Bedächtigkeit [judgment] is just knowledge directed to a definite practical end, a clear thought concentrated on a definite point. יקרא, he calls out, and יבּיע, he sputters out, are parallels to יפרשׂ. Fleischer: פּרשׂ, expandit ( opp . Arab. ṭawy, intra animum cohibuit ), as a cloth or paper folded or rolled together, cf. Schiller’s (Note: “ Er breitet es heiter und glänzend aus, Das zusammengewickelte Leben .”) - “He spreads out brightly and splendidly The enveloped life.” There lies in the word something derisive: as the merchant unrolls and spreads out his wares in order to commend them, so the fool does with his foolery, which he had enveloped, i.e. , had the greatest interest to keep concealed within himself

‏ Proverbs 13:16-25

Pro 13:16 16 Every prudent man acteth with understanding; But a fool spreadeth abroad folly.

Hitzig reads, with the Syr. (but not the Targ.) and Jerome, כּל (omnia agit), but contrary to the Hebr. syntax. The כּל־ is not feeble and useless, but means that he always acts בּדּעת, mit Bedacht [with judgment] (opp. בּבלי דעת, inconsulto, Deu 4:42; Deu 19:4), while on the contrary the fool displays folly. Pro 12:23 and Pro 15:2 serve to explain both members of the verse. Bedächtigkeit [judgment] is just knowledge directed to a definite practical end, a clear thought concentrated on a definite point. יקרא, he calls out, and יבּיע, he sputters out, are parallels to יפרשׂ. Fleischer: פּרשׂ, expandit (opp. Arab. ṭawy, intra animum cohibuit), as a cloth or paper folded or rolled together, cf. Schiller’s (Note: “Er breitet es heiter und glänzend aus, Das zusammengewickelte Leben.”) - “He spreads out brightly and splendidly

The enveloped life.”

There lies in the word something derisive: as the merchant unrolls and spreads out his wares in order to commend them, so the fool does with his foolery, which he had enveloped, i.e., had the greatest interest to keep concealed within himself - he is puffed up therewith. Pro 13:17 17 A godless messenger falls into trouble; But a faithful messenger is a cordial.

The traditional text, which the translations also give (except Jerome, nuntius impii, and leaving out of view the lxx, which makes of Pro 13:17 a history of a foolhardy king and a wise messenger), has not מלאך, but מלאך; the Masora places the word along with המלאך, Gen 48:16. And יפל is likewise testified to by all translators; they all read it as Kal, as the traditional text punctuates it; Luther alone departs from this and translates the Hiph.: “a godless messenger bringeth misfortune.” Indeed, this conj. יפּל presses itself forward; and even though one read יפּל, the sense intended by virtue of the parallelism could be no other than that a godless messenger, because no blessing rests on his godlessness, stumbles into disaster, and draws him who gave the commission along with him. The connection מלאך רשׁע is like אדם רשׁע, Pro 11:7 (cf. the fem. of this adj., Eze 3:18). Instead of בּרע is בּרעה, Pro 17:20; Pro 28:14, parallels (cf. also Pro 11:5) which the punctuators may have had in view in giving the preference to Kal. With מלאך, from לאך, R. לך, to make to go = to send, is interchanged ציר, from צוּר, to turn, whence to journey (cf. Arab. ṣar, to become, to be, as the vulg. “to be to Dresden = to journey” is used). The connection ציר אמוּנים (cf. the more simple ציר נאמן, Pro 25:13) is like Pro 14:15, עד אמונים; the pluralet. means faithfulness in the full extent of the idea. Regarding מרפּא, the means of healing, here to strength, refreshment, vid., Pro 4:22; Pro 12:18. Pro 13:18 18 Poverty and shame (to him) who rejecteth correction; But he who regardeth reproof is honoured.

We are neither to supply אישׁ before רישׁ קלונו (or more correctly, abstr. pro concr., as רמיּה, Pro 1:27), nor ל before פורע, as Gesenius (Lehrgeb. §227a) does; nor has the part. פּורע the value of a hypothetical clause like Pro 18:13, Job 41:18, although it may certainly be changed into such without destroying the meaning (Ewald, Hitzig); but “poverty and shame is he who is without correction,” is equivalent to, poverty and shame is the conclusion or lot of him who is without correction; it is left to the hearer to find out the reference of the predicate to the subject in the sense of the quality, the consequence, or the lot (cf. e.g., Pro 10:17; Pro 13:1; Pro 14:35). ^{▼▼Vid., regarding the strong demand which the Hebr. style makes on hearer and reader, my Gesch. der jüdischen Poesie (1863), p. 189.}

Regarding פרע, vid., p. 73. The Latin expression corresponding is: qui detrectat disciplinam. He who rejects the admonition and correction of his parents, his pastor, or his friend, and refuses every counsel to duty as a burdensome moralizing, such an one must at last gather wisdom by means of injury if he is at all wise: he grows poorer in consequence of missing the right rule of life, and has in addition thereto to be subject to disgrace through his own fault. On the contrary, to him who has the disgrace to deserve reproof, but who willingly receives it, and gives it effect, the disgrace becomes an honour, for not to reject reproof shows self-knowledge, humility, and good-will; and these properties in the judgment of others bring men to honour, and have the effect of raising them in their position in life and in their calling. Pro 13:19

Two pairs of proverbs regarding fools and wise men, ranged together by catchwords. 19 Quickened desire is sweet to the soul, And it is an abomination to fools to avoid evil.

A synthetic distich, the first line of which, viewed by itself, is only a feebler expression of that which is said in Pro 13:12, for תּאוה נהיה is essentially of the same meaning as תאוה באה, not the desire that has just arisen and is not yet appeased (Umbreit, Hitzig, Zöckler), which when expressed by a part. of the same verb would be הוה (= אשׁר היתה), but the desire that is appeased (Jerome, Luther, also Venet. ἔφεσις γενομένη, i.e., after Kimchi: in the fulfilling of past desire; on the contrary, the Syr., Targ. render the phrase נאוה of becoming desire). The Niph. נהיה denotes not the passing into a state of being, but the being carried out into historical reality, e.g., Eze 21:12; Eze 39:8, where it is connected with באה; it is always the expression of the completed fact to which there is a looking back, e.g., Jdg 20:3; and this sense of the Niph. stands so fast, that it even means to be done, finished (brought to an end), to be out, to be done with anything, e.g., Dan 2:1. ^{▼▼We have said, p. 156, that a Niph. in which the peculiar causative meaning of the Hiph. would be rendered passively is without example; we must here with נהיה add, that the Niph. of intransitive verbs denotes the entrance into the condition expressed by the Kal, and may certainly be regarded, according to our way of thinking, as passive of the Hiphil (Gesen. §51, 2). But the old language shows no ההוה to which נהיה (Arab. âinhaway, in Mutenebbi) stood as passive; in the Arab. also the seventh form, rightly regarded, is always formed from the first, vid., Fleischer’s Beiträge, u.s.w., in the Sitzungs-Bericht. d. Sächs. Gesellschaft d. Wiss. 1863, p. 172f.}

The sentence, that fulfilled desire does good to the soul, appears commonplace (Hitzig); but it is comprehensive enough on the ground of Heb 11 to cheer even a dying person, and conceals the ethically significant truth that the blessedness of vision is measured by the degree of the longing of faith. But the application of the clause in its pairing with 19b acquires another aspect. On this account, because the desire of the soul is pleasant in its fulfilment, fools abhor the renouncing of evil, for their desire is directed to that which is morally worthless and blameworthy, and the endeavour, which they closely and constantly adhere to, is to reach the attainment of this desire. This subordinate proposition of the conclusion is unexpressed. The pairing of the two lines of the proverb may have been occasioned by the resemblance in sound of תועבת and תּאוה. סוּר is n. actionis, like Pro 16:17, cf. 6. Besides, it in to be observed that the proverb speaks of fools and not of the godless. Folly is that which causes that men do not break free from evil, for it is the deceit of sinful lust which binds them fast thereto. Pro 13:20 20 Whoever goes with wise men, becomes wise; And whoever has intercourse with fools, becomes base.

Regarding the significance of this proverb in the history of the religion and worship of Israel, vid., p. 39. We have translated 20a after the Kerı̂; the translation according to the Chethı̂b is: “go with wise men and become wise” (cf. Pro 8:33), not הלוך, for the connection of the (meant imperatively) infin. absol. with an imper. (meant conclusively) is not tenable; but הלוך is an imper. form established by הלכוּ, Jer 51:50 (cf. הלוך = לכת, Num 22:14), and appears to have been used with such shades of conception as here as intercourse and companionship for לך. Regarding ירוע gnid, vid., at Pro 11:15; there it meant malo afficietur, here it means malus (pejor) fiet. The Venet. (contrary to Kimchi, who explains by frangetur) rightly has κακωθήσεται. There is here a play upon words; רעה means to tend (a flock), also in general to be considerate about anything (Pro 15:14; 44:20), to take care of anything with the accusative of the person (Pro 28:7; Pro 29:3), to hold intercourse with any one: he who by preference seeks the society of fools, himself becomes such (Jerome, similis efficietur), or rather, as ירוע expresses, he comes always morally lower down. “A wicked companion leads his associate into hell.” Pro 13:21 21 Evil pursueth sinners, And the righteous is repaid with good.

To תּרדּף of the punishment which follows after sinners at their heels, cf. Nah 1:8. Greek art gives wings to Nemesis in this sense. To translate 21b, with Löwenstein, “The pious, the good rewards them,” is untenable, for טוב, the good (e.g., Pro 11:27), never appears personified, only טוב, goodness, Psa 23:6, according to which the lxx τοὺς δὲ δικαίους καταλήψεται (ישׂיג) ἀγαθά. Still less is טוב meant personally, as the Venet. τὰ δὲ δίκαια ἀποδώσει χρηστός, which probably means: righteous conduct will a good one, viz., God, reward. טוב .dr is an attribute of God, but never the name of God. So the verb שׁלּם, after the manner of verbs of educating and leading (גמל, עשׂה, עבד), is connected with a double accusative. The Syr., Targum, and Jerome translate passively, and so also do we; for while we must think of God in the retribuet, yet the proverb does not name Him any more than at Pro 12:14, cf. Pro 10:24; it is designedly constructed, placing Him in the background, with vague generality: the righteous will one, will they, reward with good - this expression, with the most general personal subject, almost coincides with one altogether passive. Pro 13:22 22 The good man leaveth behind him for his children’s children, And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

As a commencing word, טוב signifies in the Mishle for the most part bonum (prae); but here, as at Pro 12:2, cf. Pro 22:9; Pro 14:4, it signifies bonus. As the expression that God is טוב (Psa 25:8, etc.) of the O.T. is equivalent to the N.T. that He is ἀγάπη, so that man who in his relation to others is determined by unselfish love is טוב for the good man [der Gütige], i.e., the man who is willing to communicate all good is truly good, because the essence of צדקה, righteousness of life, is love. Such an one suffers no loss by his liberality, but, according to the law, Pro 11:25, by which a dispenser of blessings is at the same time also a recipient of blessings, he has only gain, so that he makes his children’s children to inherit, i.e., leaves behind him an inheritance extending even to his grandchildren (vid., regarding הנחיל, p. 182; here trans. as containing its object in itself, as at Deu 32:8 : to make to inherit, to place in possession of an inheritance). The sinner, on the contrary (חוטא sing. to חטּאים, ἁμαρτωλοί), loses his wealth, it is already destined to pass over to the righteous who is worthy of it, and makes use (cf. Job 27:17) of that which he possesses in accordance with the will and appointment of God - a revelation of justice appertaining to time, the exceptions to which the old limited doctrine of requital takes no notice of. חיל, strength, then like our “Vermögen” (cf. opes, facultates), that by means of which one is placed in circumstances to accomplish much (Fl.); cf. regarding the fundamental idea contorquere, compingere, p. 226, also regarding צפן, properly condensare, then condere, p. 61. Pro 13:23

Connected with Pro 13:22 there now follow two proverbs regarding sustenance, with one intervening regarding education. 23 The poor man’s fresh land gives food in abundance, And many are destroyed by iniquity.

The Targ. and Theodotion (μέγας) translate רב, but the Masora has רב־ with short Kametz, as Pro 20:6; Ecc 1:8 (cf. Kimchi under רבב). The rendering: multitudo cibi est ager pauperum, makes the produce the property of the field (= frugum fertilis). ניר .)s is the new field (novale or novalis, viz., ager), from ניר, to make arable, fruitful; properly to raise up, viz., by grubbing and freeing of stones (סקּל). But why, asks Hitzig, just the new field? As if no answer could be given to this question, he changes ניר into ניב, and finds in 23a the description of a rentier, “a great man who consumes the income of his capital.” But how much more intelligible is the new field of the poor man than these capitals (ראשׁים) with their per cents (ניב)! A new field represents to us severe labour, and as belonging to a poor man, a moderate field, of which it is here said, that notwithstanding its freshly broken up fallow, it yet yields a rich produce, viz., by virtue of the divine blessing, for the proverb supposes the ora et labora. Regarding ראשׁים = רשׁים, vid., at Pro 10:4. Jerome’s translation, patrum (properly, heads), follows a false Jewish tradition. In the antithesis, 23b, one is tempted to interpret ישׁ in the sense of Pro 8:21 [substance, wealth], as Schultens, opulentia ipsa raditur quum non est moderamen, and Euchel: that which is essentially good, badly managed, goes to ruin. But ישׁ and וישׁ at the beginning of a proverb, or of a line of a proverb, in every case means est qui. That a wealthy person is meant, the contrast shows. נספּה, which denotes anything taken away or gathered up, has the same meaning here as at 1Sa 27:1 : est qui (Fl. quod, but the parallel does not demand this) abripiatur, i.e., quasi turbine auferatur et perdatur; the word reminds us of סופה, whirlwind, but in itself it means only something smooth and altogether carried off. The בּ is here as at Gen 19:15; elsewhere בּלא משׁפּט means with injustice (properly, not-right), Pro 16:8, Jer 22:13; Eze 22:29; here it is not the ב of the means, but of the mediate cause. While the (industrious and God-fearing) poor man is richly nourished from the piece of ground which he cultivates, many a one who has incomparably more than he comes by his unrighteousness down to a state of beggary, or even lower: he is not only in poverty, but along with this his honour, his freedom, and the very life of his person perish. Pro 13:24 24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son, And he who loveth him visits him early with correction.

The paedagogic rule of God, Pro 3:12, avails also for men, Pro 23:13., Pro 29:15. The rod represents here the means of punishment, the patria potestas. He who spareth or avoideth this, and who does this even from love, has yet no true right love for his son; he who loveth him correcteth him early. With ἐπιμελῶς παιδεύει of the lxx (cf. Sir. 30:1, ἐνδελεχήσει μάστιγας) the thought is in general indicated, but the expression is not explained. Many erroneously regard the suffix of שׁחרו as referring to the object immediately following (de Dieu, Ewald, Bertheau, Zöckler); Hitzig, on the contrary, rightly remarks, that in this case we should expect the words to be, after Pro 5:22 (cf. Exo 2:6), את־המּוּסר. He himself, without any necessity, takes שׁחר in the sense of the Arab. skhar, compescere. Hofmann (Schriftbew. ii. 2. 402) is right in saying that “שׁחר is connected with a double accusative as elsewhere קדּם occurs; and the meaning is, that one ought much more to anticipate correction than restrain it where it is necessary.” שׁחר means to go out early to anything, according to which a Greek rendering is ὀρθρίζει (Venet. ὀρθριεῖ) αὐτῷ παιδείαν: maturat ei castigationem = mature eum castigat (Fl.). שׁחר does not denote the early morning of the day (as Rashi, לבקרים), but the morning of life (as Euchel, בשׁחר ימיו). “The earlier the fruit, the better the training.” A father who truly wishes well to his son keeps him betimes under strict discipline, to give him while he is yet capable of being influenced the right direction, and to allow no errors to root themselves in him; but he who is indulgent toward his child when he ought to be strict, acts as if he really wished his ruin. Pro 13:25 25 The righteous has to eat to the satisfying of his soul; But the body of the godless must suffer want.

Jerome translates תחסר freely by insaturabilis (he has want = has never enough), but in that case we would have expected תחסר תּמיד; also in 25a עד־שׂבע would have been used. We have thus before us no commendation of temperance and moderation in contrast to gluttony, but a statement regarding the diversity of fortune of the righteous and the godless - another way of clothing the idea of Pro 10:3. שׂבע is a segolate form, thus an infin. formation, formally different from the similar שׂבע, Pro 3:10. Regarding בּטן, vid., Psychol. p. 265f.; it is a nobler word than “Bauch” [belly], for it denotes not the external arch, but, like κοιλία (R. בט, concavus), the inner body, here like Pro 18:20, as that which receives the nourishment and changes it in succum et sanguinem. That God richly nourishes the righteous, and on the contrary brings the godless to want and misery, is indeed a rule with many exceptions, but understood in the light of the N.T., it has deep inward everlasting truth.