Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 17:1 - 17:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Pro 17:1
A comparative proverb with טוב, pairing with Pro 16:32 :
Better a dry piece of bread, and quietness therewith,
Than a house full of slain beasts with unquietness.
Similar to this in form and contents are Pro 15:16. and Pro 16:8. פַּת חֲרֵבָה is a piece of bread (פת, fem., as Pro 23:8) without savoury drink (Theodotion, καθ ̓ ἑαυτόν, i.e., nothing with it), cf. Lev 7:10, a meat-offering without the pouring out of oil. זְבָחִים are not sacrificial gifts (Hitzig), but, as always, slain animals, i.e., either offerings or banquets of slain beasts; it is the old name of the שׁלמים (cf. Exo 18:12; Exo 24:5; Pro 7:14), part of which only were offered on the altar, and part presented as a banquet; and זֶבַח (in contradist. to טֶבַח, Lev 9:2; 43:16) denotes generally any kind of consecrated festival in connection with the worship of God, 1Sa 20:29; cf. Gen 31:54. “Festivals of hatred” are festivals with hatred. מָלֵא is part. with object.-accus.; in general מָלֵא forms a constructive, מְלֵא occurs only once (Jer 6:11), and מְלֵאֵי not at all. We have already, Pro 7:14, remarked on the degenerating of the shelamı̂m feasts; from this proverb it is to be concluded that the merriment and the excitement bordering on intoxication (cf. with Hitzig, 1Sa 1:13 and 1Sa 1:3), such as frequently at the Kirmsen merry-makings, brought quarrels and strife, so that the poor who ate his dry bread in quiet peace could look on all this noise and tumult without envy.
Pro 17:2
2 A prudent servant shall rule over the degenerate son;
And he divides the inheritance among the brethren.
Regarding the contrasts of מַשְׂכִּיל and מֵבִישׁ, vid., at Pro 10:5; Pro 14:35. The printed editions present בְּבֶן־מֵבִישׁ in genit. connection: a son of the scandalous class, which is admissible; but Cod. 1294 and Cod. Jaman,
(Note: The Cod. brought by Sapiir from Jemen, of which there is an account in the preface to the edition of Isaiah by Baer and me.)
Erf. No. 2, 3, write בְּבֵן מֵבִישׁ (with Tsere and Munach), and that is perhaps right, after Pro 10:5; Pro 17:25. The futures have here also a fut. signification: they say to what it will come. Grotius remarks, with reference to this: manumissus tutor filiis relinquetur; יחלק tutorio officio. But if he is a conscientious, unselfish tutor, he will not enrich himself by property which belongs to another; and thus, though not without provision, he is yet without an inheritance. And yet the supplanting of the degenerate is brought about by this, that he loses his inheritance, and the intelligent servant steps into his place. Has one then to suppose that the master of the house makes his servant a co-heir with his own children, and at the same time names him as his executor? That were a bad anachronism. The idea of the διαθήκη was, at the time when this proverb was coined, one unknown - Israelitish iniquity knows only the intestate right of inheritance, regulated by lineal and gradual succession. Then, if one thinks of the degenerate son, that he is disowned by the father, but that the intelligent servant is not rewarded during the life of his master for his true services, and that, after the death of the master, to such a degree he possesses the esteem and confidence of the family, that he it is who divides the inheritance among the brethren, i.e., occupies the place amongst them of distributor of the inheritance, not: takes a portion of the inheritance, for חָלַק has not the double meaning of the Lat. participare; it means to divide, and may, with בְּ, mean “to give a part of anything” (Job 39:17); but, with the accus., nothing else than to distribute, e.g., Jos 18:2, where it is to be translated: “whose inheritance had not yet been distributed (not yet given to them).” Jerome, haereditatem dividet; and thus all translators, from the lxx to Luther.
Pro 17:3
3 The fining-pot for silver, and the furnace for gold;
And a trier of hearts is Jahve.
An emblematical proverb, which means that Jahve is for the heart what the smelting-pot (from צָרַף, to change, particularly to melt, to refine) is for silver, and what the smelting furnace (כוּר, from כּוּר, R. כר, to round, Exo 22:20) is for gold, that Jahve is for the heart, viz., a trier (בחן, to grind, to try by grinding, here as at Psa 7:10) of their nature and their contents, for which, of the proof of metals, is elsewhere (Pro 16:2; Pro 21:2; Pro 24:12) used the word (cf. בְּחוֹן, the essay-master, Jer 6:7) תֹּכֵן, weigher, or דּוֹרֵשׁ, searcher (1Ch 28:9). Wherever the subject spoken of is God, the searcher of hearts, the plur. לִבּוֹת, once לְבָבוֹת ecno ,, is used; the form לְבָבִים occurs only in the status conjunctus with the suffix. In Pro 27:21 there follow the two figures, with which there is formed a priamel, as at Pro 26:3, another tertium comparationis.
Pro 17:4
4 A profligate person giveth heed to perverse lips;
Falsehood listeneth to a destructive tongue.
The meaning, at all events, is, that whoever gives ear with delight to words which are morally reprobate, and aimed at the destruction of neighbours, thereby characterizes himself as a profligate. Though מֵרַע is probably not pred. but subj., yet so that what follows does not describe the מֵרַע (the profligate hearkens...), but stamps him who does this as a מרע (a profligate, or, as we say: only a profligate...). מֵרַע, for מֵרֵעַ, is warranted by Isa 9:16, where מרַע (not מרָע ton, according to which the Venet. here translates ἀπὸ κακοῦ) is testified to not only by correct codd. and editions, but also by the Masora (cf. Michlol 116b). הִקְשׁיב (from קָשַׁב, R. קש, to stiffen, or, as we say, to prick, viz., the ear) is generally united with לְ or אֶל, but, as here and at Pro 29:12; Jer 6:19, also with עַל. אָוֶן, wickedness, is the absolute contrast of a pious and philanthropic mind; הַוֹּת, from הַוָּה, not in the sense of eagerness, as Pro 10:3; Pro 11:6, but of yawning depth, abyss, catastrophe (vid., at Psa 5:10), is equivalent to entire destruction - the two genitives denote the property of the lips and the tongue (labium nequam, lingua perniciosa), on the side of that which it instrumentally aims at (cf. Psa 36:4; Psa 52:4): practising mischief, destructive plans. שֶׁקֶר beginning the second line is generally regarded as the subj. parallel with מרע, as Luther, after Jerome, “A wicked man gives heed to wicked mouths, and a false man listens willingly to scandalous tongues.” It is possible that שׁקר denotes incarnate falsehood, as רְמִיָּה, Pro 12:27, incarnate slothfulness, cf. מִרְמָה, Pro 14:25, and perhaps also Pro 12:17; צֶדֶק, Psa 58:2, תּוּשִׁיָּה, Mic 6:9; יֵצֶר סָמוּךְ, Isa 26:13, etc., where, without supplying אִישׁ (אַנְשֵׁי), the property stands instead of the person possession that property. The clause, that falsehood listeneth to a deceitful tongue, means that he who listens to it characterizes himself thereby, according to the proverb, simile simili gaudet, as a liar. But only as a liar? The punctuation before us, which represents מֵרַע by Dechi as subj., or also pred., takes שֶׁקֶר מֵזִין as obj. with מזין as its governing word, and why should not that be the view intended? The representation of the obj. is an inversion less bold than Isa 22:2; Isa 8:22, and that עַל here should not be so closely connected with the verb of hearing, as 4a lies near by this, that הִקְשִׁיב עַל is elsewhere found, but not הֶֽאֱזִין עַל. Jewish interpreters, taking שׁקר as obj., try some other meaning of מזין than auscultans; but neither זון, to approach, nor זין, to arm (Venet. ψεῦδος ὁπλίζει), gives a meaning suitable to this place. מֵזִין is equivalent to מַֽאֲזִין. As אַֽאֲזִין, Job 32:11, is contracted into אָזִין, so must מַֽאֲזִין, if the character of the part. shall be preserved, become מֵזִין, mediated by מַיְזִין.
Pro 17:5
5 He that mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker;
He that rejoiceth over calamity remains not unpunished.
Line first is a variation of Pro 14:31. God is, according to Pro 22:2, the creator of the poor as well as of the rich. The poor, as a man, and as poor, is the work of God, the creator and governor of all things; thus, he who mocketh the poor, mocketh Him who called him into existence, and appointed him his lowly place. But in general, compassion and pity, and not joy (שָׂמַח לְ, commonly with לְ, of the person, e.g., Obad. Oba 1:12, the usual formula for ἐπιχαιρεκακία), is appropriate in the presence of misfortune (אֵיד, from אוּד, to be heavily burdened), for such joy, even if he on whom the misfortune fell were our enemy, is a peccatum mortale, Job 31:29. There is indeed a hallowed joy at the actual revelation in history of the divine righteousness; but this would not be a hallowed joy if it were not united with deep sorrow over those who, accessible to no warning, have despised grace, and, by adding sin to sin, have provoked God's anger.