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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 11:29 - 11:29
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29 He that troubleth his own household shall inherit the wind,
And a fool becomes servant to the wise in heart.
Jerome well translates: qui conturbat domum suam, for עכר closely corresponds to the Lat. turbare; but with what reference is the troubling or disturbing here meant? The Syr. translates 29a doubly, and refers it once to deceit, and the second time to the contrary of avarice; the lxx, by ὁ μὴ συμπεριφερόμενος τῷ ἑαυτοῦ οἴκῳ, understands one who acts towards his own not unsociably, or without affability, and thus not tyrannically. But עֹכֵר שְׁאֵרוֹ Pro 11:17, is he who does not grudge to his own body that which is necessary; עֹכֵר יִשְׂרָאֶל is applied to Elijah, 1Ki 18:17, on account of whose prayer there was a want of rain; and at Pro 15:27 it is the covetous who is spoken of as עֹכֵר בֵּיתוֹ. The proverb has, accordingly, in the man who “troubles his own house” (Luth.), a niggard and sordid person (Hitzig) in view, one who does not give to his own, particularly to his own servants, a sufficiency of food and of necessary recreation. Far from raising himself by his household arrangements, he shall only inherit wind (יִנְחַל, not as the Syr. translates, יַנְחִיל, in the general signification to inherit, to obtain, as Pro 3:35; Pro 28:10, etc.), i.e., he goes always farther and farther back (for he deprives his servants of all pleasure and love for their work in seeking the prosperity of his house), till in the end the reality of his possession dissolves into nothing. Such conduct is not only loveless, but also foolish; and a foolish person (vid., regarding אֱוִיל at Pro 1:7) has no influence as the master of a house, and generally is unable to maintain his independence: “and the servant is a fool to him who is wise of heart.” Thus the lxx (cf. also the lxx of Pro 10:5), Syr., Targ., Jerome, Graec. Venet., Luth. construe the sentence. The explanation, et servus stulti cordato (sc. addicitur), i.e., even the domestics of the covetous fool are at last partakers in the wise beneficence (Fl.), places 29b in an unnecessary connection with 29a, omits the verb, which is here scarcely superfluous, and is not demanded by the accentuation (cf. e.g., Pro 19:22).