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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 21:12 - 21:12
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12 A righteous One marketh the house of the godless;
He hurleth the godless to destruction.
If we understand by the word צַדִּיק a righteous man, then 12a would introduce the warning which he gives, and the unexpressed subject of 12b must be God (Umbreit). But after such an introitus, יהוה ought not to be wanting. If in 12a “the righteous man” is the subject, then it presents itself as such also for the second parallel part. But the thought that the righteous, when he takes notice of the house of the godless, shows attention which of itself hurls the godless into destruction (Löwenstein), would require the sing. רשׁע in the conclusion; also, instead of מְסַלֵּף the fut. יְסַלֵּף would have been found; and besides, the judicial סִלֵּף (vid., regarding this word at Pro 11:3; Pro 19:3) would not be a suitable word for this confirmation in evil. Thus by צדיק the proverb means God, and מסלף has, as at Pro 22:12, Job 12:19, this word as its subject. “A righteous One” refers to the All-righteous, who is called, Job 34:17, “the All-just One,” and by Rashi, under the passage before us, צַדִּיקוֹ שֶׁל־עוֹלָם. Only do not translate with Bertheau and Zöckler: the Righteous One (All-righteous), for (1) this would require הַצַּדִּיק, and (2) הצדיק is never by itself used as an attributive designation of God. Rightly, Fleischer and Ewald: a Righteous One, viz., God. It is the indetermination which seeks to present the idea of the great and dreadful: a Righteous One, and such a Righteous One!
(Note: The Arabs call this indetermination âlnkrt lalt'ẓym wallthwyl. Vid., under Psa 2:12.)
השׂכיל with על, Pro 16:20, or אֶל, Psa 41:2; Neh 8:13, here with לְ, signifies to give attention to anything, to look attentively on it. The two participles stand in the same line: animum advertit ... evertit. Hitzig changes לְבֵּית רָשָׁע into לְבֵּיתוֹ, and makes רֶשַׁע the subject of 12b; but the proverb as it lies before us is far more intelligible.