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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 2:1 - 2:1
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The first אִם, with that which it introduces, Pro 2:1, Pro 2:2, is to be interpreted as an exclamation, “O that!” (O si), and then as an optative, as Psa 81:9; Psa 139:19. אָז ...כִּי, Pro 2:3-5, with the inserted connecting clauses, would then be confirmatory, “for then.” But since this poet loves to unfold one and the same thought in ever new forms, one has perhaps to begin the conditional premisses with Pro 2:1, and to regard כִּי אִם as a new commencement. Hitzig takes this כי אם in the sense of imo: “much more if thou goest to meet her, e.g., by curious inquiry, not merely permittest her quietly to come to thee.” אִם would then preserve its conditional meaning; and כִּי as in Job 31:18; Psa 130:4, since it implies an intentional negative, would receive the meaning of imo. But the sentences ranged together with אִם are too closely related in meaning to admit such a negative between them. כִּי will thus be confirmatory, not mediately, but immediately; it is the “for = yes” of confirmation of the preceding conditions, and takes them up again (Ewald, §356, b, cf. 330 b) after the form of the conditional clause was given up. The צָפַן, which in Pro 1:11, Pro 1:18, is the synonym of צָפָה, speculari, presents itself here, 1b, 7a, as the synonym of טָמַן, whence מַטְמֹנִים, synon. of צְפוּנִים, recondita; the group of sounds, צף, צם, טם (cf. also דף, in Arab. dafan, whence dafynat, treasure), express shades of the root representation of pressing together. The inf. of the conclusion לְהַקְשִׁיב, to incline (Gr. Venet. ὡς ἀκροῷτο), is followed by the accus. of the object אָזְנֶךָ, thine ear, for הקשׁיב properly means to stiffen (not to purge, as Schultens, nor to sharpen, as Gesenius thinks); cf. under Psa 10:17. With חָכְמָה are interchanged בִּינָה, which properly means that which is distinguished or separated, and תְּבוּנָה, which means the distinguishing, separating, appellations of the capacity of distinguishing in definite cases and in general; but it does not represent this as a faculty of the soul, but as a divine power which communicates itself as the gift of God (charisma).