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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 21:29 - 21:29
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Another proverb with אִישׁ: -
A godless man showeth boldness in his mien;
But one that is upright-he proveth his way.
The Chethı̂b has יָכִין; but that the upright directeth, dirigit, his way, i.e., gives to it the right direction (cf. 2Ch 27:6), is not a good contrast to the boldness of the godless; the Kerı̂, הֵבִין דַּרְכּוֹ, deserves the preference. Aquila, Symmachus, the Syr., Targ., and Venet. adhere to the Chethı̂b, which would be suitable if it could be translated, with Jerome, by corrigit; Luther also reads the verb with כ, but as if it were יִכּוֹן (whoever is pious, his way will stand) - only the lxx render the Kerı̂ (συνιεῖ); as for the rest, the ancients waver between the Chethı̂b דְּרָכָיו and the Kerı̂ דַּרְכּוֹ: the former refers to manner of life in general; the latter (as at Pro 3:31 and elsewhere) to the conduct in separate cases; thus the one is just as appropriate as the other. In the circumstantial designation אִישׁ רָשָׁע (cf. Pro 11:7) we have the stamp of the distinction of different classes of men peculiar to the Book of Proverbs. הֵעֵז (to make firm, defiant) had, Pro 7:13, פנים as accus.; the בְּ here is not that used in metaphoristic expressions instead of the accus. obj., which we have spoken of at Pro 15:4; Pro 20:30, but that of the means; for the face is thought of, not as the object of the action, but, after Gesen. §138, 1, as the means of its accomplishment: the godless makes (shows) firmness, i.e., defiance, accessibility to no admonition, which is countenance; but the upright considers, i.e., proves (Pro 14:8), his way. בִּין (הֵבין) means a perceiving of the object in its specific peculiarity, an understanding of its constituent parts and essential marks; it denotes knowing an event analytically, as הִשְׂכִּיל, as well as synthetically (cf. Arab. shakl), and is thus used as the expression of a perception, which apprehends the object not merely immediately, but closely examines into its circumstances.