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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 14:18 - 14:18
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18 The simple have obtained folly as an inheritance;
But the prudent put on knowledge as a crown.
As a parallel word to נָֽחֲלוּ, יַכְתִּרוּ (after the Masora defective), also in the sense of Arab. âkthar, multiplicare, abundare (from Arab. kathura, to be much, perhaps
(Note: According to rule the Hebr. ש becomes in Arab. ṯ, as in Aram. ת; but kthar might be from ktar, an old verb rarely found, which derivata with the idea of encircling (wall) and of rounding (bunch) point to.)
properly comprehensive, encompassing), would be appropriate, but it is a word properly Arabic. On the other hand, inappropriate is the meaning of the Heb.-Aram. כַּתֵּר, to wait (properly waiting to surround, to go round any one, cf. manere aliquem or aliquod), according to which Aquila, ἀναμενούσιν, and Jerome, expectabunt. Also הִכְתִּיר, to encompass in the sense of to embrace (lxx κρατήσουσιν), does not suffice, since in the relation to נחלו one expects an idea surpassing this. Certainly there is a heightening of the idea in this, that the Hiph. in contradistinction to נחל would denote an object of desire spontaneously sought for. But far stronger and more pointed is the heightening of the idea when we take יכתרו as the denom. of כֶּרֶת (Gr. κίταρις, κίδαρις, Babyl. כדר, cudur, cf. כַּדּוּר, a rounding, sphaera). Thus Theodotion, στεφθήσονται. The Venet. better actively, ἐστέψαντο (after Kimchi: ישׂימו הדעת ככתר על ראשם), the Targ., Jerome, Luther (but not the Syr., which translates נחלו by “to inherit,” but יכתרו by μεριοῦνται, which the lxx has for נחלו). The bibl. language has also (Ps. 142:8) הכתיר in the denom. signification of to place a crown, and that on oneself; the non-bibl. has מכתיר (like the bibl. מַֽעֲטִיר) in the sense of distributor of crowns,
(Note: Vid., Wissenschaft, Kunst, Judenthum (1838), p. 240.)
and is fond of the metaphor כתר הדעת, crown of knowledge. With those not self-dependent (vid., regarding the plur. form of פְּתִי, p. 56), who are swayed by the first influence, the issue is, without their willing it, that they become habitual fools: folly is their possession, i.e., their property. The prudent, on the contrary, as Pro 14:15 designates them, have thoughtfully to ponder their step to gain knowledge as a crown (cf. הֶֽעֱשִׁיר, to gain riches, הִפְרִיחַ, 11b, to gain flowers, Gesen. §53, 2). Knowledge is to them not merely an inheritance, but a possession won, and as such remains with them a high and as it were a kingly ornament.