Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 11:18 - 11:18

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 11:18 - 11:18


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Man consists of body and soul. In regard to both, benevolence brings its reward, and hatred its punishment.

The godless acquires deceptive gain;

But he that soweth righteousness, a true reward.

Jerome makes 18b an independent clause, for he translates it as if the word were written וּלְזֹרֵעַ; the Syr. and Targ. also, as if אֲמִתּוֹ שְׂכָרוֹ (his fidelity is his reward). But according to the text as it stands, עֹשֶׂה extends its regimen to both parts of the verse; to make is here equivalent to, to work out, to acquire, περιποιεῖσθαι, as Gen 31:1; Jer 17:1, etc. The labour of the godless has selfishness as its motive, and what he acquires by his labour is therefore “delusive gain,” - it is no blessing, it profits him not (Pro 10:2), and it brings him no advantage (Pro 10:16). He, on the contrary, acquires truth, i.e., a truly profitable and enduring reward, who sows right-doing, or better: good-doing, by which we also, as the biblical moral in צְדָקָה, think principally of well-doing, unselfish activity and self-sacrificing love. Hos 10:12 speaks of sowing which has only צְדָקָה as the norm; and how צְדָקָה is understood is seen from the parallel use of חסד [piety]. The “true reward” is just the harvest by which the sowing of the good seed of noble benevolent actions is rewarded.