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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 15:28 - 15:28
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Two proverbs regarding the righteous and the wicked:
28 The heart of the righteous considereth how to answer right,
And the mouth of the godless poureth forth evil.
Instead of לַֽעֲנוֹת, the lxx (Syr. and Targ.) imagines אֱמוּנוֹת πίστεις; Jerome translates, but falsely, obedientiam (from עָנָה, to bend oneself); Meîri thinks on לַֽעֲנָה, wormwood, for the heart of the righteous revolves in itself the misery and the vanity of this present life; Hitzig corrects this verse as he does the three preceding: the heart of the righteous thinks on עֲנָווֹת, a plur. of verb עֲנָוָה, which, except in this correction, does not exist. The proverb, as it stands, is, in fineness of expression and sharpness of the contrast, raised above such manglings. Instead of the righteous, the wise might be named, and instead of the godless, fools (cf. 2b); but the poet places the proverb here under the point of view of duty to neighbours. It is the characteristic of the righteous that he does not give the reins to his tongue; but as Luther has translated: the heart of the righteous considers [tichtet from dictare, frequently to speak, here carefully to think over] what is to be answered, or rather, since מַה־לַּֽעֲנוֹת is not used, he thinks thereupon to answer rightly, for that the word ענות is used in this pregnant sense is seen from 23a. The godless, on the contrary, are just as rash with their mouth as the righteous are of a thoughtful heart: their mouth sputters forth (effutit) evil, for they do not first lay to heart the question what may be right and just in the case that has arisen.