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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 12:26 - 12:26
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
26 The righteous looketh after his pastures,
But the way of the godless leadeth them into error.
In 26a no acceptable meaning is to be gained from the traditional mode of vocalization. Most of the ancients translate יָתֵר as part. to יֹתֵר, as it occurs in post-bibl. Hebr., e.g., חִבָּה יְתֵרָה, prevailing, altogether peculiar love. Thus the Targum, טַב מִן הַבְרֵיהּ; Venet. πεπερίττευται (after Kimchi); on the other hand, Aquila, active: περισσεύων τὸν πλησίον (making the neighbour rich), which the meaning of the Kal as well as the form יָתֵר oppose; Luther, “The righteous man is better than his neighbour,” according to which Fleischer also explains, “Probably יָתֵר from יָתַר, πλεονάζειν, has the meaning of πλέον ἔχων, πλεονεκτῶν, he gains more honour, respect, riches, etc., than the other, viz., the unrighteous.” Yet more satisfactory Ahron b. Joseph: not the nobility and the name, but this, that he is righteous, raises a man above others. In this sense we would approve of the praestantior altero justus, if only the two parts of the proverb were not by such a rendering wholly isolated from one another. Thus יָתֵר is to be treated as the fut. of הֵתִיר. The Syr. understands it of right counsel; and in like manner Schultens explains it, with Cocceius, of intelligent, skilful guidance, and the moderns (e.g., Gesenius) for the most part of guidance generally. Ewald rather seeks (because the proverb-style avoids the placing of a fut. verb at the commencement of the proverb but cf. Pro 17:10) to interpret יָתֵר as a noun in the sense of director, but his justification of the fixed ā is unfounded. And generally this sense of the word is exposed to many objections. The verb תּוּר signifies, after its root, to go about, “to make to go about,” but is, however, not equivalent to, to lead (wherefore Böttcher too ingeniously derives יָתֵר = יָאתֵר from אתר = אשׁר); and wherefore this strange word, since the Book of Proverbs is so rich in synonyms of leading and guiding! The Hiph. הֵתִיר signifies to send to spy, Jdg 1:23, and in this sense the poet ought to have said יָתֵר לְרֵעֵהוּ: the righteous spies out (the way) for his neighbour, he serves him, as the Targum-Talmud would say, as תַּיָּר. Thus connected with the obj. accus. the explanation would certainly be: the righteous searches out his neighbour (Löwenstein), he has intercourse with men, according to the maxim, “Trau schau wem.” But why not רֵעֵהוּ, but מֵרֵעֵהוּ, which occurs only once, Pro 19:7, in the Mishle, and then for an evident reason? Therefore, with Döderlein, Dathe, J. D. Michaelis, Ziegler, and Hitzig, we prefer to read מִרְעֵהוּ; it is at least not necessary, with Hitzig, to change יָתֵר into יָתֻר, since the Hiphil may have the force of the intens. of the Kal, but יָתֵר without the jussive signification is a poetic licence for יָתִיר. That תור can quite well be used of the exploring of the pasture, the deriv. יתוּר, Job 39:18, shows. Thus altered, 26a falls into an appropriately contrasted relation to 26b. The way of the godless leads them into error; the course of life to which they have given themselves up has such a power over them that they cannot set themselves free from it, and it leads the enslaved into destruction: the righteous, on the contrary, is free with respect to the way which he takes and the place where he stays; his view (regard) is directed to his true advancement, and he looketh after his pasture, i.e., examines and discovers, where for him right pasture, i.e., the advancement of his outer and inner life, is to be found. With מִרְעֵהוּ there is a combination of the thought of this verse with the following, whose catch-word is צֵידוֹ, his prey.