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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 24:15 - 24:15
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
15 Lie not in wait, oh wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous;
Assault not his resting-place.
16 For seven times doth the righteous fall and rise again,
But the wicked are overthrown when calamity falls on them.
The אֱרֹב [lying in wait] and שַׁדֵּד [practising violence], against which the warning is here given, are not directed, as at Pro 1:11; Pro 19:26, immediately against the person, but against the dwelling-place and resting-place (רֵבֶץ, e.g., Jer 50:6, as also נָוֶה, 3:33) of the righteous, who, on his part, does injustice and wrong to no one; the warning is against coveting his house, Exo 20:17, and driving him by cunning and violence out of it. Instead of רָשָׁע, Symmachus and Jerome have incorrectly read רֶשַׁע daer, and from this misunderstanding have here introduced a sense without sense into Pro 24:15; many interpreters (Löwenstein, Ewald, Elster, and Zöckler) translate with Luther appositionally: as a wicked man, i.e., “with mischievous intent,” like one stealthily lurking for the opportunity of taking possession of the dwelling of another, as if this could be done with a good intent: רשׁע is the vocative (Syr., Targ., Venet.: ἀσεβές), and this address (cf. Psa 75:5.) sharpens the warning, for it names him who acts in this manner by the right name. The reason, 16a, sounds like an echo of Job 5:19. שֶׁבַע signifies, as at Psa 119:164, seven times; cf. מֵאָה, Pro 17:10. וָקָם (not וְקָם) is perf. consec., as וָחַי, e.g., Gen 3:22 : and he rises afterwards (notwithstanding), but the transgressors come to ruin; בְּרָעָה, if a misfortune befall them (cf. Pro 14:32), they stumble and fall, and rise no more.