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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 11:9 - 11:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
9 The wicked with his mouth prepareth destruction for his neighbour;
But by knowledge the righteous are delivered from it.
The lxx translate, ἐν στόματι ἀσεβῶν παγὶς (רשׁת?) πολίταις, αἴσθησις δὲ δικαίοις εὔοδος, (יצלחו). There is no reason for changing (with Hitzig and Ewald) the text, which in the form in which it is here translated was before all other translators (Aq., Symmachus, Theodotion, Syr., Targ., Jerome). The accentuation, which separates the two instrumental statements by greater disjunctives from that which follows, is correct. The “three” Greek versions viz. of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus translate חָנֵף by ὑποκριτής, which it means in the modern idiom; but in the ancient Hebr. it signifies, him who is resolved upon evil, as in Arab. ḥanyf, him who is resolved upon that which is right: he who turns aside to evil enters on a path far removed from that which is right. In יַשְׁחִית one is reminded (without any etymological reason) of שַׁחַת (pit), and so in יֵחָֽלְצוּ of מִשְּׁחִיתוֹתָם (Psa 107:20) or a similar word; but בְּדַּעַת contains the reference, in this connection not easy to be mistaken, to the hostile purposes of the wicked masked by the words of the mouth, which are seen through by the righteous by virtue of knowledge which makes them acquainted with men. This penetrating look is their means of deliverance.