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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 27:16 - 27:16
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This verse stands in close connection with the preceding, for it speaks of the contentious woman:
He that restraineth her restraineth the wind,
And oil meeteth his right hand.
The connection of the plur. subject צֹֽפְנֶיהָ = quicunque eam cohibet, with a sing. predicate, is not to be disputed (vid., Pro 3:18 and Pro 28:16, Chethı̂b); but can צפן gain from the meaning of preserving, laying up, also the meanings of keeping, of confining, and shutting up? - for these meanings we have כָּלָא and עָצַר (cf. צָרַר, Pro 30:4). In 16b it lies nearer to see in יְמִינוֹ the object of the clause (oil meeteth his right hand) than the subject (his right hand meeteth oil), for the gender of ימין directs to יָד (e.g., Eze 15:6; cf. 6a, where נֶאְדָּרִי is as to gender indifferent): it is fem., while on the contrary שֶׁמֶן is generally masc. (cf. Son 1:3). There is no reason for regarding ימינו as an adverbial accus. (he meets oil with his right hand), or, with Hitzig, as a second subject (he meets oil, his right hand); the latter, in the order of the words lying before us, is not at all possible. We suppose that יִקְרָא, as at Gen 49:1, is equivalent to יִקְרֶה (Ewald, §116c), for the explanation oleum dexterae ejus praeconem agit (Cocceius, Schultens) does not explain, but only darkens: and oleum dexterâ suâ legit, i.e., colligit (Fleischer), is based on an untenable use of the word. As one may say of person to person, קָֽרְךָ, occurrit tibi, Num 25:18, so also יִקְרָא (יִקְרֶה), of a thing that meets a man or one of his members; and if we compare לִקְרַאת and קְרִי, then for 16b the meaning is possible: oil meets his right hand; the quarrelsome woman is like oil that cannot be held in the hand, which struggles against that which holds it, for it always glides out of the hand. Thus also Luther: “and seeks to hold oil with his hand,” as if he read יִקְמָֽץ. In fact, this word was more commonly used as the expression of untenableness than the colourless and singular word יקרא, which, besides, is so ambiguous, that none of the old translators has thought on any other קרא than that which signifies “to call,” “to name.” The Jewish interpreters also adhere to this nearest lying קרא, and, moreover, explain, as the Syr., Targ., Aquila, Symmachus, Jerome, and the Venet., שׁמן ימינו, according to the accentuation as genit. connected, e.g., Rashi: he calls for oil to his right hand, viz., as the means of purification from leprosy, Lev 8:14 [Lev 14:16]; and Aben Ezra: even when he calls for oil to his right hand, i.e., would move them to silence with the precious anointing oil. Perhaps Pro 27:16 was originally an independent proverb as follows:
צפני הון צפן רוח
ושמן ימינו יקרא
He who layeth up riches in store layeth up the wind,
And he nameth them the fat of his right hand;
i.e., he sees in them that which makes his right hand fat and strong (שֶׁמֶן, as at Psa 109:24, opp. Zec 11:17; cf. בְּמִשְׁמַנָּיו, Isa 10:16, and regarding Ἐσμούν, the Phoenician god of health, at Isa 59:10), and yet it is only the wind, i.e., something that is worthless and transient, which he stored up (צָפַן, as at Pro 13:22, and in מַצְפֻּנָיו, Obad. Oba 1:6). הוֹן is used as it frequently occurs in the Book of Proverbs, e.g., Pro 11:4, and the whole proverb expresses by another figure the same as Pro 18:11. The fact that צפון (רוח), Pro 25:23, and as a contrast thereto in the compass ימין (the south), hovered before the poet, may not have been without its influence on the choice of the words and expression here.