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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 21:10 - 21:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
10 The soul of the godless hath its desire after evil;
His neighbour findeth no mercy in his eyes.
The interchange of perf. and fut. cannot be without intention. Löwenstein renders the former as perf. hypotheticum: if the soul of the wicked desires anything evil...; but the רָשָׁע wishes evil not merely now and then, but that is in general his nature and tendency. The perf. expresses that which is actually the case: the soul of the wicked has its desire directed (write אִוְּתָה with Munach, after Codd. and old Ed., not with Makkeph) toward evil, and the fut. expresses that which proceeds from this: he who stands near him is not spared. יֻחַן is, as at Isa 26:10, Hoph. of חָנַן, to incline, viz., oneself, compassionately toward any one, or to bend to him. But in what sense is בְּעֵינָיו added? It does not mean, as frequently, e.g., Pro 21:2, according to his judgment, nor, as at Pro 20:8; Pro 6:13 : with his eyes, but is to be understood after the phrase מָצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי: his neighbour finds no mercy in his eyes, so that in these words the sympathy ruling within him expresses itself: “his eyes will not spare his friends,” vid., Isa 13:18.