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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 10:32 - 10:32
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32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable;
But the mouth of the godless is mere falsehood.
Hitzig, instead of יֵדְעוּן, reads יַבִּעוּן; the ἀποστάζει [they distil or send forth] of the lxx does not favour this, for it is probably only a corruption of ἐπίσταται, which is found in several MSS the Graec. Venet., which translates ποιμανοῦσι, makes use of a MS which it sometimes misreads. The text does not stand in need of any emendations, but rather of a corrected relation between the clauses, for the relation of 31a with 32b, and of 32a with 31b, strongly commends itself (Hitzig); in that case the explanation lies near: the lips of the righteous find what is acceptable, viz., to God. But this thought in the Mashal language is otherwise expressed (Pro 12:2 and paral.); and also 32a and 32b fit each other as contrasts, if by רָצוֹן, as Pro 11:27; Pro 14:9, is to be understood that which is acceptable in its widest generality, equally then in relation to God and man. It is a question whether ידעון means that they have knowledge of it (as one e.g., says ידע סֵפֶר, to understand writing, i.e., the reading of it), or that they think thereupon (cf. Pro 27:23). Fundamentally the two ideas, according to the Hebrew conception of the words, lie in each other; for the central conception, perceiving, is biblically equivalent to a delighted searching into or going towards the object. Thus: the lips of the righteous think of that which is acceptable (רצון, cogn. to חן, gracefulness; χάρις, Col 4:6); while the mouth of the godless is mere falsehood, which God (the wisdom of God) hates, and from which discord on all sides arises. We might transfer ידעון to 32b; but this line, interpreted as a clause by itself, is stronger and more pointed (Fl.).