Pro 7:22 | KD | STEP | What followed: - 22 So he goes after her at once As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house, And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fetters, 23 As a bird hastens to the net, Without knowing that his life is at stake - Till the arrow pierces his liver. The part. הולך (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer’s Torath Emeth , p. 25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool’s going after her. פּתאם (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a κεπφωθείς, as the lxx translates, i.e. , as we say, a simpleton who has gone on the lime-twig. He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter-house, unconscious that he is going thither to be slaughtered; the lxx ungrammatically destroying the attributive clause: ὥσπερ δὲ βοῦς ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἄγεται. The difficulties in וּכעכס (thus punctuated, after Kimchi, with a double Segol , and not וכעכס, as is frequently the case) multiply, and it is not to be reconciled with the traditional text. The ox appears to require another beast as a side-piece; and accordingly the lxx, Syr., and Targ. find in עכס a dog (to which from אויל they also pick out איּל, a stag), Jerome a lamb ( et quasi agnus כבשׂ), Rashi a venomous serpent (perhaps after ἔχις?), Löwenstein and Malbim a rattlesnake (נחשׁ מצלצל after עכּס); but all this is mere conjecture. Symmachus’ σκιρτῶν (ἐπὶ δεσμῶν ἄφρων) is without support, and, like the favourite rendering of Schelling, et sicut saliens in vinculum cervus (איל), is unsuitable on account of the unsemitic position of the words. The noun עכס, plur. עכסים, signifies, , an anklet as a female ornament (whence the denom. עכּס, to make a tinkling of the anklets). In itself the word only means the fetter, compes , from עכס, Arab. 'akas, 'akash, contrahere, constringere ( vid ., Fleischer under ); and that it can also be used of any kind of means of checking free movement, the Arab. 'ikâs, as the name of a cord with which the camel is made fast by the head and forefeet, shows. With this signification the interpretation is: et velut pedicâ (= וכבעכס) implicatus ad castigationem stulti , he follows her as if (bound) with a fetter to the punishment of the fool, i.e. , of himself (Michaelis, Fleischer, and others). Otherwise Luther, who first translated “in a fetter,” but afterwards (supplying ל, not ב): “and as if to fetters, where one corrects fools.” But the ellipsis is harsh, and the parallelism leads us to expect a living being in the place of עכס. Now since, according to Gesenius, עכס, fetter, can be equivalent to a fettered one neither at ; , nor (according to which עכס must at least have an active personal signification), we transpose the nouns of the clause and write וכאויל אל־מוּסר עכס, he follows her as a fool ( Psychol . p. 292) to correction (restraint) with fetters; or if אויל is to be understood not so much physically as morally, and refers to self-destroying conduct ( ): as a madman, i.e. , a criminal, to chains. The one figure denotes the fate into which he rushes, like a beast devoid of reason, as the loss of life; and the other denotes the fate to which he permits himself to be led by that woman, like a criminal by the officer, as the loss of freedom and of honour.

‏ Proverbs 7:22

What followed: - 22 So he goes after her at once As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house, And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fetters, 23 As a bird hastens to the net, Without knowing that his life is at stake - Till the arrow pierces his liver.

The part. הולך (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool’s going after her. פּתאם (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a κεπφωθείς, as the lxx translates, i.e., as we say, a simpleton who has gone on the lime-twig. He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter-house, unconscious that he is going thither to be slaughtered; the lxx ungrammatically destroying the attributive clause: ὥσπερ δὲ βοῦς ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἄγεται. The difficulties in וּכעכס (thus punctuated, after Kimchi, with a double Segol, and not וכעכס, as is frequently the case) multiply, and it is not to be reconciled with the traditional text. The ox appears to require another beast as a side-piece; and accordingly the lxx, Syr., and Targ. find in עכס a dog (to which from אויל they also pick out איּל, a stag), Jerome a lamb (et quasi agnus כבשׂ), Rashi a venomous serpent (perhaps after ἔχις?), Löwenstein and Malbim a rattlesnake (נחשׁ מצלצל after עכּס); but all this is mere conjecture. Symmachus’ σκιρτῶν (ἐπὶ δεσμῶν ἄφρων) is without support, and, like the favourite rendering of Schelling, et sicut saliens in vinculum cervus (איל), is unsuitable on account of the unsemitic position of the words. The noun עכס, plur. עכסים, signifies, Isa 3:18, an anklet as a female ornament (whence Isa 3:16 the denom. עכּס, to make a tinkling of the anklets). In itself the word only means the fetter, compes, from עכס, Arab. 'akas, 'akash, contrahere, constringere (vid., Fleischer under Isa 59:5); and that it can also be used of any kind of means of checking free movement, the Arab. 'ikâs, as the name of a cord with which the camel is made fast by the head and forefeet, shows. With this signification the interpretation is: et velut pedicâ (= וכבעכס) implicatus ad castigationem stulti, he follows her as if (bound) with a fetter to the punishment of the fool, i.e., of himself (Michaelis, Fleischer, and others). Otherwise Luther, who first translated “in a fetter,” but afterwards (supplying ל, not ב): “and as if to fetters, where one corrects fools.” But the ellipsis is harsh, and the parallelism leads us to expect a living being in the place of עכס. Now since, according to Gesenius, עכס, fetter, can be equivalent to a fettered one neither at Isa 17:5; Isa 21:17, nor Pro 23:28 (according to which עכס must at least have an active personal signification), we transpose the nouns of the clause and write וכאויל אל־מוּסר עכס, he follows her as a fool (Psychol. p. 292) to correction (restraint) with fetters; or if אויל is to be understood not so much physically as morally, and refers to self-destroying conduct (Psa 107:7): as a madman, i.e., a criminal, to chains. The one figure denotes the fate into which he rushes, like a beast devoid of reason, as the loss of life; and the other denotes the fate to which he permits himself to be led by that woman, like a criminal by the officer, as the loss of freedom and of honour.