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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 20:2 - 20:2
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2 A roaring as of a lion is the terror of the king;
And he that provoketh him forfeiteth his life.
Line first is a variation of Pro 19:12. The terror which a king spreads around (מֶלֶךְ, gen. subjecti., as, e.g., at Job 9:34 and generally) is like the growling of a lion which threatens danger. The thought here suggested is that it is dangerous to arouse a lion. Thus מִתְעַבְּרוֹ does not mean: he who is angry at him (Venet.: χολούμενος αὐτῷ), but he who provokes him (lxx, Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther). הִתְעַבֵּר signifies, as we saw at Pro 14:16, to be in a state of excessive displeasure, extreme anger. Here the meaning must be: he who puts him into a state of anger (lxx, ὁ παροξύνων αὐτόν, in other versions with the addition of καὶ ἐπιμιγνύμενος, who conducts himself familiarly towards him = מתעָֽרְבו). But can mitharvo have this meaning? That the Hithpa. of transitive stems, e.g., הִתְחַגֵּן (1Ki 8:59) and הִשְׁתַּמֵּר (Mic 6:16), is construed with the accus. of that which any one performs for himself (cf. Ewald's Gramm. Arab. §180), is not unusual; but can the Hithpa. of the intrans. עבר, which signifies to fall into a passion, “express with the accusative the passion of another excited thereby” (Ewald, §282a)? There is no evidence for this; and Hitzig's conjecture, מְתַעְבְּרוֹ (Tiphel of the Targ. תַּֽעֲבוֹר = עֶבְרָה), is thus not without occasion. But one might suppose that הִתְעַבֵּר, as the reflexive of a Piel or Hiphil which meant to be put into a state of anger, may mean to draw forth the anger of any one, as in Arab., the VIIIth form (Hithpa.) of ḥaḍr, to be present, with the accus. as reflexive of the IVth form, may mean: sibi aliquid praesens sistere. Not so difficult is חָטָא with the accus. of that which is missing, vid., Pro 8:36 and Hab 2:10.