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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 1:17 - 1:17
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The second argument in support of the warning.
For in vain is the net spread out
In the eyes of all (the winged) birds.
The interpretation conspersum est rete, namely, with corn as a bait, which was put into circulation by Rashi, is inadmissible; for as little as הִזָּה (Hiph. of נָזָה) can mean to strew, can זְרָה mean to spread. The object is always that which is scattered (gestreut), not that which is spread (bestreut). Thus, expansum est rete, but not from מָזַר, extendere, from which מְזוֹרָה
(Note: The MS Masora remarks לית וחסר, and hence מְזֹרָה is written defectively in the Erfurt, 1, 2, 3, Frankf. 1294, in the edition of Norzi and elsewhere.)
in this form cannot be derived (it would in that case be מְזוּרָה), but from זֹרָה, pass. of זֵרָה, to scatter, spread out. The alluring net, when it is shaken out and spread, is, as it were, scattered, ventilatur. But if this is done incautiously before the eyes of the birds to be caught, they forthwith fly away. The principle stress lies on the בְּעֵינֵי (before the eyes) as the reason of the חִנָּם (in vain), according to the saying of Ovid, Quae nimis apparent retia, vitat avis. The applicatio similitudinis lying near, according to J. H. Michaelis, is missed even by himself and by most others. If the poet wished to say that they carried on their work of blood with such open boldness, that he must be more than a simpleton who would allow himself to be caught by them, that would be an unsuitable ground of warning; for would there not be equally great need for warning against fellowship with them, if they had begun their enticement with more cunning, and reckoned on greater success? Hitzig, Ewald, Zöckler, and others, therefore interpret חנם, not in the sense of in vain, inasmuch as they do not let themselves be caught; but: in vain, for they see not the net, but only the scattered corn. But according to the preceding, הָרָשֶׁת (the net) leads us to think only either of the net of the malicious designs, or the net of the alluring deceptions. Thus, as Ziegler has noticed, the warned ought to make application of the similitude to himself: Go not with them, for their intention is bad; go not with them, for if the bird flees away from the net which is spread out before it, thou wilt not surely be so blind as suffer thyself to be ensnared by their gross enticements. בַּעַל כָּנָף: the furnished with the wing (wings in Ecc 10:20); בַּעַל forms the idea of property (lord).