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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 15:33 - 15:33
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33 The fear of Jahve is a discipline to wisdom,
And before honour is humility.
We may regard 'יִרְאַת ה (the fear of Jahve) also as pred. here. The fear of Jahve is an educational maxim, and the end of education of the Chokma; but the phrase may also be the subject, and by such a rendering Luther's parallelism lies nearer: “The fear of the Lord is discipline to wisdom;” the fear of God, viz., continually exercised and tried, is the right school of wisdom, and humility is the right way to honour. Similar is the connection מוּסַר הַשְׂכֵּל, discipline binds understanding to itself as its consequence, Pro 1:3. Line second repeats itself, Pro 18:12, “Pride comes before the fall.” Luther's “And ere one comes to honour, he must previously suffer,” renders עֹֽנִי rather than עֲנָוָה. But the Syr. reverses the idea: the honour of the humble goeth before him, as also one of the anonymous Greek versions: προπορεύεται δὲ ταπεινοῖς δόξα. But the δόξα comes, as the above proverb expresses it, afterwards. The way to the height lies through the depth, the depth of humility under the hand of God, and, as ענוה expresses, of self-humiliation.