Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 15:19 - 15:19

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 15:19 - 15:19


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

19 The way of the slothful is as hedged with thorns;

But the path of the righteous is paved.

Hitzig misses the contrast between אָצֵל (slothful) and יְשָׁרִים (upright), and instead of the slothful reads עָרִיץ, the tyrannical. But is then the slothful ישׁר? The contrast is indeed not that of contradiction, but the slothful is one who does not act uprightly, a man who fails to fulfil the duty of labour common to man, and of his own special calling. The way of such an one is כִּמְשֻׂכַת חָדֶק, like a fencing with thorns (from חדק, R. חד, to be pointed, sharp, distinguished from Arab. hadḳ, to surround, and in the meaning to fix with the look, denom. of khadaḳt, the apple of the eye), so that he goes not forwards, and sees hindrances and difficulties everywhere, which frighten him back, excusing his shunning his work, his remissness of will, and his doing nothing; on the contrary, the path of those who wait truly and honestly on their calling, and prosecute their aim, is raised up like a skilfully made street, so that unhindered and quickly they go forward (סְלוּלָה, R. סל, aggerare, cf. Jer 18:15 with Isa 49:11 and Isa 49:4 :8, סִלְסֵל, which was still in use in the common language of Palestine in the second cent., Rosch haschana, 26b).