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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 22:7 - 22:7
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7 A rich man will rule over the poor,
And the borrower is subject to the man who lends.
“This is the course of the world. As regards the sing. and plur. in 7a, there are many poor for one rich; and in the Orient the rule is generally in the hands of one” (Hitzig). The fut. denotes how it will and must happen, and the substantival clause 7b, which as such is an expression of continuance (Arab. thabât, i.e., of the remaining and continuing), denotes that contracting of debt brings naturally with it a slavish relation of dependence. לֹוֶה, properly he who binds himself to one se ei obligat, and מַלְוֶה, as Pro 19:17 (vid., l.c.), qui alterum (mutui datione) obligat, from לָוָה, Arab. lwy, to wind, turn, twist round (cog. root laff), whence with Fleischer is also to be derived the Aram. לְוַת, “into connection;” so אֶל, properly “pushing against,” refers to the radically related אָלָה (= ולה), contiguum esse. אִישׁ מַלְוֶה is one who puts himself in the way of lending, although not directly in a professional manner. The pred. precedes its subject according to rule. Luther rightly translates: and he who borrows is the lender's servant, whence the pun on the proper names: “Borghart [= the borrower] is Lehnhart's [= lender's] servant.”