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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 10:23 - 10:23
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23 Like sport to a fool is the commission of a crime;
And wisdom to a man of understanding.
Otherwise Löwenstein: to a fool the carrying out of a plan is as sport; to the man of understanding, on the contrary, as wisdom. זִמָּה, from זָמַם, to press together, mentally to think, as Job 17:11, and according to Gesenius, also Pro 21:27; Pro 24:9. But זִמָּה has the prevailing signification of an outrage against morality, a sin of unchastity; and especially the phrase עָשָׂה זִמָּה is in Jdg 20:6 and in Ezekiel not otherwise used, so that all the old interpreters render it here by patrare scelus; only the Targum has the equivocal עבד עֲבִידְתָּא; the Syriac, however, 'bd bı̂_taa'. Sinful conduct appears to the fool, who places himself above the solemnity of the moral law, as sport; and wisdom, on the contrary, (appears as sport) to a man of understanding. We would not venture on this acceptation of כִּשְׂחוֹק if שַׂחֵק were not attributed, Pro 8:30., to wisdom itself. This alternate relationship recommends itself by the indetermination of חָכְמָהוְ, which is not favourable to the interpretation: sed sapientiam colit vir intelligens, or as Jerome has it: sapientia autem est viro prudentia. The subjects of the antithesis chiastically combine within the verse: חכמה, in contrast to wicked conduct, is acting in accordance with moral principles. This to the man of understanding is as easy as sporting, just as to the fool is shameless sinning; for he follows in this an inner impulse, it brings to him joy, it is the element in which he feels himself satisfied.