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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 12:13 - 12:13
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Proverbs regarding injurious and beneficial words, wise hearing and prudent silence.
13 In the transgression of the lips there lies a dangerous snare;
The righteous escapeth from trouble.
The consecutive modus (וַיֵּצֵא) is here of greater weight than e.g., at Pro 11:8, where the connection follows without it (וַיָּבֹא) from the idea of the change of place. The translation: but the righteous ... restores וְיָצָא (וְיֵצֵא), and ignores the syllogistic relation of the members of the proverb, which shows itself here (cf. the contrary, Pro 11:9) to a certain degree by וַיֵּצֵא. Ewald displaces this relation, for he paraphrases: “any one may easily come into great danger by means of inconsiderate words; yet it is to be hoped that the righteous may escape, for he will guard himself against evil from the beginning.” He is right here in interpreting צָרָה and מוֹקֵשׁ רָע as the designation of danger into which one is betrayed by the transgressions of his lips, but “inconsiderate words” are less than פֶּשַׁע שְׂפָתַיִם. One must not be misled into connecting with פֶּשַׁע the idea of missing, or a false step, from the circumstance that פֶּשַׁע means a step; both verbs have, it is true, the common R. פש with the fundamental idea of placing apart or separating, but פֶּשַׁע has nothing to do with פֶּשַׁע (step = placing apart of the legs), but denotes (as Arab. fusuwḳ fisḳ, from the primary meaning diruptio, diremtio) a sinning, breaking through and breaking off the relation to God (cf. e.g., Pro 28:24), or even the restraints of morality (Pro 10:19). Such a sinning, which fastens itself to, and runs even among the righteous, would not be called פשׁע, but rather חַטָּאת (Pro 20:9). According to this the proverb will mean that sinful words bring into extreme danger every one who indulges in them - a danger which he can with difficulty escape; and that thus the righteous, who guards himself against sinful words, escapes from the distress (cf. with the expression, Ecc 7:18) into which one is thereby betrayed. רָע is the descriptive and expressive epithet to מוקשׁ (cf. Ecc 9:12): a bad false trap, a malicious snare, for מוקשׁ is the snare which closes together and catches the bird by the feet. This proverb is repeated at Pro 29:6, peculiarly remodelled. The lxx has after Pro 12:13 another distich:
He who is of mild countenance findeth mercy;
He who is litigious oppresseth souls.
(נפשׁות, or rather, more in accordance with the Hebrew original: oppresseth himself, נפשׁו.)