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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 10:29 - 10:29
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29 Jahve's way is a bulwark to the righteous;
But ruin to those that do evil.
Of the two meanings which מָעֹז (מָעוֹז) has: a stronghold from עָזַז, and asylum (= Arab. m'adz) from עוּז, the contrast here demands the former. 'דֶּרֶךְ ה and 'יִרְאַת ה, understood objectively, are the two O.T. names of true religion. It means, then, the way which the God of revelation directs men to walk in (Psa 143:8), the way of His precepts, Psa 119:27, His way of salvation, Psa 67:3 (4); in the N.T. ἡ ὁδὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, Mat 22:16; Act 18:25.; cf. ἡ ὁδός simply, Act 9:2; Act 24:14. This way of Jahve is a fortress, bulwark, defence for innocence, or more precisely, a disposition wholly, i.e., unreservedly and without concealment, directed toward God and that which is good. All the old interpreters, also Luther, but not the Graec. Venet., translate as if the expression were לַתָּם; but the punctuation has preferred the abstr. pro concreto, perhaps because the personal תָּם nowhere else occurs with any such prefix; on the contrary, תֹּם is frequently connected with ב, כ, ל. לתם דרך, integro viae (vitae), are by no means to be connected in one conception (Ziegler, Umbr., Elster), for then the poet ought to have written מעז יהוה לתם־דרך. 29b cannot be interpreted as a thought by itself: and ruin (vid., regarding מְחִתָּה, ruina, and subjectively consternatio, Pro 10:16) comes to those who do evil; but the thought, much more comprehensive, that religion, which is for the righteous a strong protection and safe retreat, will be an overthrow to those who delight only in wickedness (vid., on אָוֶן, p. 143), is confirmed by the similarly formed distich, Pro 21:15. Also almost all the Jewish interpreters, from Rashi to Malbim, find here expressed the operation of the divine revelation set over against the conduct of men - essentially the same as when the Tora or the Chokma present to men for their choice life and death; or the gospel of salvation, according to 2Co 2:15, is to one the savour of life unto life, to another the savour of death unto death.