Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 21:8 - 21:8

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 21:8 - 21:8


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

8 Winding is the way of a man laden with guilt;

But the pure - his conduct is right.

Rightly the accentuation places together “the way of a man” as subject, and “winding” as predicate: if the poet had wished to say (Schultens, Bertheau) “one crooked in his way” (quoad viam), he would have contented himself with the phrase נֶחְפַּךְ דֶּרֶךְ. But, on the other hand, the accentuation is scarcely correct (the second Munach is a transformed Mugrash), for it interprets וָזָר as a second pred.; but וָזָר is adj. to אִישׁ. As הֲפַכְפַּךְ (synon. פְּתַלְתֹּל, עֲקַלקַל) is a hapax leg., so also vazar, which is equivalent to (Arab.) mawzwr, crimine onustus, from wazria, crimen committere, properly to charge oneself with a crime. The ancient interpreters have, indeed, no apprehension of this meaning before them; the lxx obtain from the proverb a thought reminding us of Psa 18:27, in which vazar does not at all appear; the Syr. and Targ. translate as if the vav of vazar introduces the conclusion: he is a barbarian (nuchrojo); Luther: he is crooked; Jerome also sets aside the syntax: perversa via viri aliena est; but, syntactically admissible, the Venet. and Kimchi, as the Jewish interpreters generally, διαστροφωτάτη ὁδὸς ἀνδρὸς καὶ ἀλλόκοτος. Fleischer here even renounces the help of the Arab., for he translates: Tortuosa est via viri criminibus onusti, qui autem sancte vivit, is recte facit; but he adds thereto the remark that “vazar thus explained, with Cappellus, Schultens, and Gesenius, would, it is true, corresponding to the Arab. wazar, have first the abstract meaning of a verbal noun from wazira;

(Note: The n. act formed from wazara is wazr, wizr, wizat. These three forms would correspond to the Heb. vězěr, vēzěr, and zěrěth (z'rāh, cf. rěděth, r'dah, Gen 46:3).)

the old explanation is therefore perhaps better: tortuosa est via viri et deflectens (scil. a recta linea, thus devia est), when the 'viri' is to be taken in the general sense of 'many, this and that one;' the closer definition is reflected from the זַךְ of the second clause.” But (1) זָר as an adj. signifies peregrinus; one ought thus rather to expect סָר, degenerated, corrupt, although that also does not rightly accord; (2) the verbal noun also, e.g., 'all, passes over into a subst. and adj. signification (the latter without distinction of number and gender); (3) וָזָר, after its adj. signification, is related to (Arab.) wazyr, as חָכָם is to ḥakym, רָזָב to rahyb; it is of the same form as עָנָו, with which it has in common its derivation from a root of similar meaning, and its ethical signification. In 8b, וְזַךְ is rightly accented as subj. of the complex pred. זַךְ is the pure in heart and of a good conscience. The laden with guilt (guilty) strikes out all kinds of crooked ways; but the pure needs not stealthy ways, he does not stand under the pressure of the bondage of sin, the ban of the guilt of sin; his conduct is straightforward, directed by the will of God, and not by cunning policy. Schultens: Integer vitae scelerisque purus non habet cur vacillet, cur titubet, cur sese contorqueat. The choice of the designation וזך [and the pure] may be occasioned by וזר (Hitzig); the expression 8b reminds us of Pro 20:11.