Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 12:8 - 12:8

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 12:8 - 12:8


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

8 According to the measure of his intelligence is a man praised,

And whoever is of a perverse mind is despised.

Everywhere in the Mishle שֵׂכֶל has no other meaning than intellectus. The praise which is given to a man measures itself לפי שׂכלו (punctuate לְֽפִי־שִׂכְלוֹ, according to Torath Emeth, p. 41, Accentssystem, xx. §1), i.e., according to the measure (so לפי is used in the oldest form of the language) of his intelligence, or as we may also say, of his culture; for in these proverbs, which make the fear of God the highest principle, שׂכל means also understanding of moral excellence, not merely the intellectual superiority of natural gifts. הִלֵּל is here a relative conception of manifold gradations, but it does not mean renown in general, but good renown. Parallel with שִׂכְלוֹ, לֵב refers to the understanding (νοῦς); the rendering of Löwenstein, “who is of false heart,” is defective. נַעֲוֶה (synon. of נִפְתָּל and עִקֵּשׁ, but nowhere else interchanging with it) means here a vero et recto detortus et aversus (Fl.). Such a man who has not a good understanding, nor any certain rule of judgment, falls under contempt (Graec. Venet. τῷ ὀντωτῇ εἰς μυσαγμόν, after the false reading of יהוה instead of יהיה), i.e., he defames himself by his crooked judgment of men, of things and their relations, and is on this account in no position rightly to make use of them.