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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 1:8 - 1:8
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After the author has indicated the object which his Book of Proverbs is designed to subserve, and the fundamental principle on which it is based, he shows for whom he has intended it; he has particularly the rising generation in his eye:
8 Hear, my son, thy father's instruction,
And refuse not the teaching of thy mother;
9 For these are a fair crown to thy head,
And Jewels to thy neck.
“My son,” says the teacher of wisdom to the scholar whom he has, or imagines that he has, before him, addressing him as a fatherly friend. The N.T. representation of birth into a new spiritual life, 1Co 4:15; Phm 1:10; Gal 4:19, lies outside the circle of the O.T. representation; the teacher feels himself as a father by virtue of his benevolent, guardian, tender love. Father and mother are the beloved parents of those who are addressed. When the Talmud understands אָבִיךָ of God, אִמֶּךָ of the people (אֻמָּה), that is not the grammatico-historic meaning, but the practical interpretation and exposition, after the manner of the Midrash. The same admonition (with נְצֹר, keep, instead of שְׁמַע, hear, and מִצְוַת, command, instead of מוּסַר, instruction) is repeated in Pro 6:20, and what is said of the parents in one passage is in Pro 10:1 divided into two synonymous parallel passages. The stricter musar, which expresses the idea of sensible means of instruction (discipline), (Pro 13:24; Pro 22:15; Pro 23:13.), is suitably attributed to the father, and the torah to the mother, only administered by the word; Wisdom also always says תּוֹרָתִי (my torah), and only once, Pro 8:10, מוּסָרִי (my musar).
Pro 1:9
הֵם, which is also used in the neut. illa, e.g., Job 22:24, refers here to the paternal discipline and the maternal teaching. These, obediently received and followed, are the fairest ornament of the child. לִוְיָה, from לָוָה, to wind, to roll, Arab. lawy (from לַו, whence also לוּל = לַוְלַו, as דּוּד, to boil up, = דַּוְדַּו), means winding, twisted ornament, and especially wreath; a crown of gracefulness is equivalent to a graceful crown, a corolla gratiosa, as Schultens translates it; cf. Pro 4:9, according to which, Wisdom bestows such a crown.
(Note: In לוית חֵן the חן has the conjunctive accent shalsheleth, on account of which the Pesiq accent is omitted. This small shalsheleth occurs only eight times. See Torath Emeth, p. 36.)
עֲנָקִים (or עֲנָקוֹת, Jdg 8:26) are necklaces, jewels for the neck; denom. of the Arab. 'unek, and Aram. עוּנַק, the neck (perhaps from עָנַק = עוּק, to oppress, of heavy burdens; cf. αὐχήν, the neck). גַּרְגְּוֹת, is, like fauces, the throat by which one swallows (Arab. ǵarǵara, taǵarǵara), a plur. extensive (Böttcher, §695), and is better fitted than גָּרוֹן to indicate the external throat; Ezekiel, however, uses (Eze 16:11) garon, as our poet (Pro 3:3, Pro 3:22; Pro 6:21) uses garg'roth, to represent the front neck.
(Note: The writing varies greatly. Here and at Pro 6:21 we have לְגַרְגְּרֹתֶךָ; at Pro 3:3, עַל־גַּרְגְּוֹתֶךָ, Pro 3:22, לְגַרְגְּרֹתֶיךָ. Thus according to the Masora and correct texts.)