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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 20:26 - 20:26
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26 A wise king winnoweth the godless,
And bringeth over them the wheel.
A variant to Pro 20:8, but here with the following out of the figure of the winnowing. For אוֹפָן with מְזָרֶה is, without doubt, the wheel of the threshing-cart, עֲגָלָה, Isa 28:27.; and thus with מְזָרֶה, the winnowing fork, מִזְרֶה is to be thought of; vid., a description of them along with that of the winnowing shovel, רַחַת, in Wetzstein's Excursus to Isa., p. 707ff. We are not to think of the punishment of the wheel, which occurs only as a terrible custom of war (e.g., Amo 1:3). It is only meant that a wise king, by sharp and vigorous procedure, separates the godless, and immediately visits them with merited punishment, as he who works with the winnowing shovel gives the chaff to the wind. Most ancient interpreters think on אופן (from אָפַן, vertere) in its metaphorical meaning: τρόπος (thus also Löwenstein, he deals with them according to merit), or the wheel of fortune, with reference to the constellations; thus, misfortune (Immanuel, Meîri). Arama, Oetinger, and others are, however, on the right track.