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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 14:22 - 14:22
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The proverb terminating (Pro 14:21) with אַשְׁרָיו (cf. Pro 16:20) is now followed by one not less singularly formed, commencing with הֲלֹא (cf. Pro 8:1).
Will they not go astray who devise evil,
And are not mercy and truth to those who devise good?
The part. חֹרֵשׁ signifies both the plougher and the artisan; but on this account to read with Hitzig both times חָרָשֵׁי, i.e., machinatores, is nothing less than advisable, since there is connected with this metaphorical חָרַשׁ, as we have shown at Pro 3:29, not only the idea of fabricating, but also that of ploughing. Just so little is there any reason for changing with Hitzig, against all old translators, יִתְעוּ into יָרֵעוּ: will it not go ill with them...; the fut. יתעו (cf. Isa 63:17) is not to be touched; the perf. תעו (e.g., Psa 58:4) would denote that those who contrive evil are in the way of error, the fut. on the contrary that they will fall into error (cf. Pro 12:26 with Job 12:24). But if הלא יתעו is the expression of the result which shall certainly come to such, then 22b stands as a contrast adapted thereto: and are not, on the contrary, mercy and truth those who contrive that which is good, i.e., (for that which befalls them, as Pro 13:18, cf. Pro 14:35, is made their attribute) are they not an object of mercy and truth, viz., on the part of God and of men, for the effort which proceeds from love and is directed to the showing forth of good is rewarded by this, that God and men are merciful to such and maintain truth to them, stand in truth to them; for חֶסֶד וֶֽאֱמֶת is to be understood here, as at Pro 3:3, neither of God nor of men exclusively, but of both together: the wicked who contrive evil lose themselves on the way to destruction, but grace and truth are the lot of those who aim at what is good, guarded and guided by which, they reach by a blessed way a glorious end.