Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 23:26 - 23:26

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 23:26 - 23:26


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This hexastich warns against unchastity. What, in chap. 1-9, extended discourses and representations exhibited to the youth is here repeated in miniature pictures. It is the teacher of wisdom, but by him Wisdom herself, who speaks:

26 Give me, my son, thine heart;

And let thine eyes delight in my ways.

27 For the harlot is a deep ditch,

And the strange woman a narrow pit.

28 Yea, she lieth in wait like a robber,

And multiplieth the faithless among men

We have retained Luther's beautiful rendering of Pro 23:26,

(Note: The right punctuation of 26a is תְּנָה־בְנִי לְבְּךָ, as it is found in the editions: Ven. 1615; Basel 1619; and in those of Norzi and Michaelis.)

in which this proverb, as a warning word of heavenly wisdom and of divine love, has become dear to us. It follows, as Symmachus and the Venet., the Chethı̂b תִּרְצֶנָה (for תרצֶינה, like Exo 2:16; Job 5:12), the stylistic appropriateness of which proceeds from Pro 16:7, as on the other hand the Kerı̂ תִּצֹּרְנָה (cf. 1Sa 14:27) is supported by Pro 22:12, cf. Pro 5:2. But the correction is unnecessary, and the Chethı̂b sounds more affectionate, hence it is with right defended by Hitzig. The ways of wisdom are ways of correction, and particularly of chastity, thus placed over against “the ways of the harlot,” Pro 7:24. Accordingly the exhortation, Pro 23:26, verifies itself; warning, by Pro 23:27, cf. Pro 22:14, where עֲמֻקָּה was written, here as at Job 12:22, with the long vowel עֲמוּקָה (עֲמֻקָה). בְּאֵר צָרָה interchanges with שׁוּחָה עמוקה, and means, not the fountain of sorrow (Löwenstein), but the narrow pit. בְּאֵר is fem. gen., Pro 26:21., and צַר means narrow, like étroit (old French, estreit), from strictus. The figure has, after Pro 22:14, the mouth of the harlot in view. Whoever is enticed by her syren voice falls into a deep ditch, into a pit with a narrow mouth, into which one can more easily enter than escape from. Pro 23:28 says that it is the artifice of the harlot which draws a man into such depth of wickedness and guilt. With אַף, which, as at Jdg 5:29, belongs not to היא but to the whole sentence, the picture of terror is completed. The verb חָתַף (whence Arab. ḥataf, death, natural death) means to snatch away. If we take חֶתֶף as abstr.: a snatching away, then it would here stand elliptically for חֶתֶף (בַּעַל) אִישׁ, which in itself is improbable (vid., Pro 7:22, עֶכֶס) and also unnecessary, since, as מֶלֶךְ, עֶבֶד, הֵלֶךְ, etc. show, such abstracta can pass immediately into concreta, so that חֶתֶף thus means the person who snatches away, i.e., the street robber, latro (cf. חָטַף .fc(, Arab. khaṭaf, Psa 10:9, rightly explained by Kimchi as cogn.). In 28b, תוֹסִיף cannot mean abripit (as lxx, Theodotion, and Jerome suppose), for which the word תִּסְפֶּה (תֶּֽאֱסֹף) would have been used.

(Note: The Targ. translates 28b (here free from the influence of the Peshito) in the Syro-Palestinian idiom by וצָאֵד אַבְנַיָּא שַׁבְרֵי, i.e., she seizes thoughtless sons.)

But this verbal idea does not harmonize with the connection; תוסיף means, as always, addit (auget), and that here in the sense of multiplicat. The same thing may be said of בּוֹגְדִים as is said (Pro 11:15) of תּֽוֹקְעִים. Hitzig's objection, “הוסיף, to multiply, with the accusative of the person, is not at all used,” is set aside by Pro 19:4. But we may translate: the faithless, or: the breach of faith she increases. Yet it always remains a question whether בְּאָדָם is dependent on בוגדים, as Ecc 8:9, cf. 2Sa 23:3, on the verb of ruling (Hitzig), or whether, as frequently בָּאָדָם, e.g., Psa 78:60, it means inter homines (thus most interpreters). Uncleanness leads to faithlessness of manifold kinds: it makes not only the husband unfaithful to his wife, but also the son to his parents, the scholar to his teacher and pastor, the servant (cf. the case of Potiphar's wife) to his master. The adulteress, inasmuch as she entices now one and now another into her net, increases the number of those who are faithless towards men. But are they not, above all, faithless towards God? We are of opinion that not בוגדים, but תוסיף, has its complement in באדם, and needs it: the adulteress increases the faithless among men, she makes faithlessness of manifold kinds common in human society. According to this, also, it is accentuated; ובוגדים is placed as object by Mugrasch, and באדם is connected by Mercha with תוסיף.