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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 22:8 - 22:8
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The group now following extends to the end of this first collection of Solomon's proverbs; it closes also with a proverb of the poor and the rich.
8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity;
And the rod of his fury shall vanish away.
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7); he that soweth good reapeth good, Pro 11:18; he that soweth evil reapeth evil, Job 4:8; cf. Hos 10:12. עַוְלָה is the direct contrast of צְדָקָה or ישֶׁר (e.g., Psa 125:3; Psa 107:42), proceeding from the idea that the good is right, i.e., straight, rectum; the evil, that which departs from the straight line, and is crooked. Regarding אָוֶן, which means both perversity of mind and conduct, as well as destiny, calamity, vid., Pro 12:21. That which the poet particularly means by עַוְלָה is shown in 8b, viz., unsympathizing tyranny, cruel misconduct toward a neighbour. שֵׁבֶט עֶבְרָתוֹ is the rod which he who soweth iniquity makes another to feel in his anger. The saying, that an end will be to this rod of his fury, agrees with that which is said of the despot's sceptre, Isa 14:5.; Psa 125:3. Rightly Fleischer: baculus insolentiae ejus consumetur h. e. facultas qua pollet alios insolenter tractandi evanescet. Hitzig's objection, that a rod does not vanish away, but is broken, is answered by this, that the rod is thought of as brandished; besides, one uses כָּלָה of anything which has an end, e.g., Isa 16:4. Other interpreters understand “the rod of his fury” of the rod of God's anger, which will strike the עַוָּל and יִכְלֶה, as at Eze 5:13; Dan 12:7 : “and the rod of His punishment will surely come” (Ewald, and similarly Schultens, Euchel, Umbreit). This though also hovers before the lxx: πληγὴν δὲ ἔργων αὐτοῦ (עבדתו) συντελέσει (יְכַלֶּה). But if the rod of punishment which is appointed for the unrighteous be meant, then we would have expected כָּלָהוְ. Taken in the future, the כְּלוֹת of the שׁבט is not its confectio in the sense of completion, but its termination or annihilation; and besides, it lies nearer after 8a to take the suffix of עברתו subjectively (Isa 14:6; Isa 16:6) than objectively. The lxx has, after Pro 22:8, a distich: -
ἄνδρα ἱλαρὸν καὶ δότην εὐλογεῖ ὁ θεὸς
ματαιότητα δὲ ἔργων αὐτοῦ συντελέσει.
The first line (2Co 9:7) is a variant translation of 9a (cf. Pro 21:17), the second (ושׁוא עבדתו) is a similar rendering of 8b.