Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 11:23 - 11:23
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
23 The desire of the righteous is nothing but good,
The expectation of the godless is presumption.
This is usually explained with Fleischer: If the righteous wish for anything, their wish reaches to no other than a fortunate issue; but if the godless hope for anything, then there is to them in the end as their portion, not the good they hoped for, but wrath (Pro 10:28, cf. Pro 11:4). However, that עֶבְרָה is at once to be understood thus, as in יום עברה, and that the phrase is to be rendered: the hope of the godless is God's wrath, is doubtful. But עברה denotes also want of moderation, and particularly in the form of presumption, Pro 21:24, Isa 16:6; and thus we gain the thought that the desire of the righteous is directed only to that which is good, and thus to an object that is attainable because well-pleasing to God, while on the contrary the hope of the godless consists only in the suggestions of their presumption, and thus is vain self-deceit. The punctuation תאות צדיקים is contrary to rule; correct texts have תאות צדיקים, for Dechî stands before Athnach only if the Athnach-word has two syllables (Torath Emeth, p. 43; Accentssystem, xviii. §4).