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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 20:30 - 20:30
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30 Cutting wounds cleanse away evil,
And reach the inner parts of the body.
The two words for wounds in line first stand in the st. constr.; חַבּוּרָה (from חָבַר, to be bound around with stripes, to be striped) is properly the streak, the stripe; but is here heightened by פֶּצַע (from פָּצַע, to cleave, split, tear open), beyond the idea of the stripe-wound: tearing open the flesh, cuts tearing into the flesh. The pred. is after the Kerı̂ תַּמְרוּק; but this substantive, found in the Book of Esther, where it signifies the purification of the women for the harem (according to which, e.g., Ahron B. Joseph explains כמו תמרוק לנשׁים שׁהוא יפה להם), is syntactically hard, and scarcely original. For if we explain with Kimchi: wounds of deep incision find their cleansing (cure) by evil, i.e., by means which bring suffering (according to which, probably the Venet. μώλωπες τραύματος λάμψουσιν ἐν κακῷ), then תמרוקָן, with the pronoun pointing back, one would have expected. But the interpretation of בְּרַע, of severe means of cure, is constrained; that which lies nearest, however, is to understand רע of evil. But if, with this understanding of the word, we translate: Vibices plagarum sunt lustratio quae adhibetur malo (Fleischer), one does not see why בְּרע, and not rather gen. רע, is used. But if we read after the Chethı̂b תַּמְרִיק, then all is syntactically correct; for (1.) that the word יַמְרִיקוּ, or תַּמְרֵקְנָה, is not used, is in accordance with a well-known rule, Gesen. §146. 3; and (2.) that הִמְרִיק is connected, not directly with an accus. obj., but with ב, has its analogy in הִתְעֶה בְ, Jer 42:2, הִשְׁרִישׁ בְּ, Job 31:12, and the like, and besides has its special ground in the metaphorical character of the cleansing. Thus, e.g., one uses Syr. 't'aa' of external misleading; but with Syr. k of moral misleading (Ewald, §217, 2); and Arab. '_ of erecting a building; but with Arab. b of the intellectual erection of a memorial (monument). It is the so-called Bâ̇âlmojâz; vid., de Sacy's Chrest Arab. i. 397. The verb מָרַק means in Talm. also, “to take away” (a metaph. of abstergere; cf. Arab. marak, to wipe off)
(Note: Vid., Dozy's Lettre à M. Fleischer (1871), p. 198.)
and that meaning is adopted, Schabbath 33a, for the interpretations of this proverb: stripes and wounds a preparedness for evil carries away, and sorrow in the innermost part of the body, which is explained by דרוקן (a disease appearing in diverse forms; cf. “Drachenschuss,”; as the name of an animal disease); but granting that the biblical מרק may bear this meaning, the ב remains unaccountable; for we say מרק עצמו לַֽעֲבֵרָה, for to prepare oneself for a transgression (sin of excess), and not בַֽעֲבֵרָה. We have thus to abide by the primary meaning, and to compare the proverb, Berachoth 5a: “afflictive providences wash away all the transgressions of a man.” But the proverb before us means, first at least, not the wounds which God inflicts, but those which human educational energy inflicts: deep-cutting wounds, i.e., stern discipline, leads to the rubbing off of evil, i.e., rubs it, washes it, cleanses it away. It may now be possible that in 30b the subject idea is permutatively continued: et verbera penetralium corporis (thus the Venet.: πληγαὶ τῶν ταμιείων τοῦ γαρστρός), i.e., quorum vis ad intimos corporis et animi recessus penetrat (Fleischer). But that is encumbered, and חַדְרֵי־בָטֶן (cf. Pro 20:27, Pro 18:8), as referring to the depths to which stern corporal discipline penetrates, has not its full force. וּמַכּוֹת is either a particip.: and that is touching (ferientes) the inner chambers of the body, or חדרי־בטן is with the ב, or immediately the second object of תמריק to be supplied: and strokes (rub off, cleanse, make pure) the innermost part. Jerome and the Targ. also supply ב, but erroneously, as designating place: in secretioribus ventris, relatively better the lxx and Syr.: εἰς ταμιεῖα κοιλίας. Luther hits the sense at least, for he translates:
One must restrain evil with severe punishment,
And with hard strokes which one feels.