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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 11:27 - 11:27
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That self-sacrificing endeavour after the good of others finds its regard in the thought encircling the following proverbs.
27 He that striveth after good, seeketh that which is pleasing;
And he that searcheth after evil, it shall find him.
Here we have together three synonyms of seeking: בִּקֵּשׁ (R. בק, findere), which has the general meaning quaerere, from the root-idea of penetrating and pressing forwards; דָּרַשׁ (R. דר .R( , terere), which from the root-idea of trying (proving) corresponds to the Lat. studere; and שִׁחֵר (whence here שֹׁחֵר instead of מְשַׁחֵר, as דֹּבֵר instead of מְדַבֵּר), which means mane, and thus sedulo quaere (vid., at Pro 1:28). From 27b, where by רָעָה is meant evil which one prepares for another, there arises for טוֹב the idea of good thoughts and actions with reference to others. He who applies himself to such, seeks therewith that which is pleasing, i.e., that which pleases or does good to others. If that which is pleasing to God were meant, then this would have been said (cf. Pro 12:2); the idea here is similar to Pro 10:32, and the word יְבַקֵּשׁ is used, and not יִמְצָא, because reference is not made to a fact in the moral government of the world, but a description is given of one who is zealously intent upon good, and thus of a noble man. Such an one always asks himself (cf. Mat 7:12): what will, in the given case, be well-pleasing to the neighbour, what will tend to his true satisfaction? Regarding the punctuation here, שֹׁחֵר, vid., at Pro 11:26. The subject to תְבוֹאֶנּוּ, which, Pro 10:24, stands as the fundamental idea, here follows from the governed רָעָה, which may be the gen. (Psa 38:13) as well as the accus.