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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - Isaiah 32:5 - 32:5
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The vile person shall no more be called liberal - The different epithets here employed require minute explanation.
The vile person - נבל nabal, the pampered, fattened, brainless fellow, who eats to live, and lives to eat; who will scarcely part with any thing, and that which he does give he gives with an evil eye and a grudging heart.
Liberal - נדיב nadib; the generous, openhearted, princely man, who writes on all his possessions, For myself and mankind, and lives only to get and to do good.
The churl - כילי kilai, the avaricious man; he who starves himself amidst his plenty, and will not take the necessaries of life for fear of lessening his stock.
Thus he differs from נבל nabal, who feeds himself to the full, and regards no one else; like the rich man in the Gospel. The avaricious man is called כילי kilai, from כי ki, for, לי li, myself; or contracted from כל col, all, and לי li, to myself: all is mine; all I have is my own; and all I can get is for myself: and yet this man enjoys nothing; he withholds
From back and belly too their proper fare: -
O cursed lust of gold, when for thy sake
The wretch throws up his interest in both worlds,
First starved in this, then damned in that to come!
Bountiful - שוע shoa, he who is abundantly rich; who rejoices in his plenty, and deals out to the distressed with a liberal hand.