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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 21:14 - 21:14
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14 A gift in secret turneth away anger;
And a bribe into the bosom violent wrath.
Hitzig reads with Symmachus, the Targ., and Jerome, יְכַבֶּה, and translates: “extinguishes anger;” but it does not follow that they did read יכבה; for the Talm. Heb. כָּפָה signifies to cover by turning over, e.g., of a vessel, Sanhedrin 77a, which, when it is done to a candle or a fire, may mean its extinction. But כפה of the post-bibl. Heb. also means to bend, and thence to force out (Aram. כְּפָא, כְּפֵי), according to which Kimchi hesitates whether to explain: overturns = smothers, or: bends = forces down anger. The Venet. follows the latter signification: κάμψει (for Villoison's καλύψει rests on a false reading of the MS). But there is yet possible another derivation from the primary signification, curvare, flectere, vertere, according to which the lxx translates ἀνατρέπει, for which ἀποτρέπει would be yet better: כפה, to bend away, to turn off, ἀρκεῖν, arcere, altogether like the Arab. (compared by Schultens) kfâ, and kfy, ἀρκεῖν, to prevent, whence, e.g., ikfı̂ni hada: hold that away from me, or: spare me that (Fleischer); with the words hafı̂ka sharran (Lat. defendaris semper a malo) princes were anciently saluted; kfy signifies “to suffice,” because enough is there, where there is a keeping off of want. Accordingly we translate: Donum clam acceptum avertit iram, which also the Syr. meant by mephadka (מְפָרֵק). This verb is naturally to be supplied to 14b, which the lxx has recognised (it translates: but he who spares gifts, excites violent anger). Regarding שֹׂחַד, vid., at Pro 17:8; and regarding בַּחֵק, at Pro 17:23. Also here חֵק (חֵיק = חַיְק), like Arab. jayb, 'ubb, חֹב, denotes the bosom of the garment; on the contrary (Arab.) hijr, hiḍn, חֹצֶן, is more used of that of the body, or that formed by the drawing together of the body (e.g., of the arm in carrying a child). A present is meant which one brings with him concealed in his bosom; perhaps 13b called to mind the judge that took gifts, Exo 23:8 (Hitzig).