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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 19:16 - 19:16
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16 He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his soul;
He that taketh no heed to his ways dies.
As at Pro 6:23, cf. Ecc 8:5, מִצְוָה is here the commandment of God, and thus obligatory, which directs man in every case to do that which is right, and warns him against that which is wrong. And בּוֹזֵה דְּרָכָיו (according to the Masora with Tsere, as in Codd. and old editions, not בוזֶה) is the antithesis of נֹצֵר דַּרְכּוֹ, Pro 16:17. To despise one's own way is equivalent to, to regard it as worth no consideration, as no question of conscience whether one should enter upon this way or that. Hitzig's reading, פּוֹזֵר, “he that scattereth his ways,” lets himself be drawn by the manifold objects of sensuality sometimes in one direction and sometimes in another, is supported by Jer 3:13, according to which it must be מְפַזֵּר; the conj. is not in the style of the Book of Proverbs, and besides is superfluous. The lxx, which is fond of a quid pro quo - it makes, 13b, a courtesan offering a sacrifice she had vowed of the wages of sin of the quarrelsome woman - has here, as the Heb. text: ὁ καταφρονῶν τῶν ἑαυτοῦ ὁδῶν. Thus after the Kerı̂ יָמֻת, as also the Targ., Syro-Hexap., and Luther; on the contrary, the Syr., Jerome, the Venet. adopt the Chethı̂b יוּמָת: he will become dead, i.e., dies no natural death. The Kerı̂ is more in the spirit and style of the Book of Proverbs (Pro 15:10; Pro 23:13; Pro 10:21).