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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 26:27 - 26:27
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27 He who diggeth a pit falleth therein;
And he that rolleth up a stone, upon himself it rolleth back.
The thought that destruction prepared for others recoils upon its contriver, has found its expression everywhere among men in divers forms of proverbial sayings; in the form which it here receives, 27a has its oldest original in Psa 7:16, whence it is repeated here and in Ecc 10:8, and Sir. 27:26. Regarding כֹּרֶה, vid., at Pro 16:27. בָּהּ here has the sense of in eam ipsam; expressed in French, the proverb is: celui qui creuse la fosse, y tombera; in Italian: chi cava la fossa, caderà in essa. The second line of this proverb accords with Psa 7:17 (vid., Hupfeld and Riehm on this passage). It is natural to think of the rolling as a rolling upwards; cf. Sir. 27:25, ὁ βάλλων λίθον εἰς ὕψος ἐπὶ κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ βάλλει, i.e., throws it on his own head. וְגֹלֵל אֶבֶן is to be syntactically judged of like Pro 18:13.