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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 11:26 - 11:26
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26 Whoso withholdeth corn, him the people curse;
But blessing is on the head of him that selleth it.
This proverb is directed against the corn-usurer, whose covetousness and deceitful conduct is described in Amo 8:4-8. But whilst it is there said that they cannot wait till the burdensome interruption of their usurious conduct on account of the sacred days come to an end, the figure here is of a different aspect of their character: they hold back their stores of corn in the times of scarcity, for they speculate on receiving yet higher prices for it. בָּר (from בָּרַר, to purify, to be pure) is thrashed grain, cf. Arab. burr, wheat, and naḳḳy of the cleaning of the grain by the separation from it of the tares, etc. (Fl.); the word has Kametz, according to the Masora, as always in pause and in the history of Joseph. מֹנֵֽעַ has Munach on the syllable preceding the last, on which the tone is thrown back, and Metheg with the Tsere as the sign of a pause, as Pro 1:10 בֹּצֵעַ (vid., p. 67). מַשְׁבִּיר, qui annonam vendit, is denom. of שֶׁבֶר, properly that which is crushed, therefore grain (Fl.). לְאֻמִּים, which we would understand in the Proph. of nations, are here, as at Pro 24:24, the individuals of the people. The בְּרָצָה which falls on the head of the charitable is the thanks of his fellow-citizens, along with all good wishes.