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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 27:17 - 27:17
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
This proverb expresses the influence arising from the intercourse of man with man:
Iron is sharpened by iron,
And a man may sharpen the appearance of another.
When the Masora reads יָחַד, Ewald remarks, it interprets the word as denoting “at the same time,” and the further meaning of the proverb must then accord therewith. Accordingly he translates: “iron together with iron! and one together with the face of another!” But then the prep. ב or עם is wanting after the second יחד - for יַחַד is, in spite of Ewald, §217h, never a prep. - and the “face,” 17b, would be a perplexing superfluity. Hitzig already replies, but without doing homage to the traditional text-punctuation, that such a violence to the use of language, and such a darkening of the thought, is not at all to be accepted. He suggests four ways of interpreting יחד: (1) the adverb יַחַד, united, properly (taken accusat.) union; (2) יַחֵד, Psa 86:11, imper. of the Piel יִחֵד, unite; (3) יִחַדְּ, Job 3:6, jussive of the Kal חָדָה, gaudeat; and (4) as Kimchi, in Michlol 126a, jussive of the Kal חָדָה (= חָדַד) acuere, after the form תַחַז, Mic 4:11. וַיַּחַץ, Gen 32:8, etc. in p. יָחַד, after the form אָחַז, Job 23:9. וַיָּחַל, 2Ki 1:2 (= וַיֶּֽחֱלָא, 2Ch 16:12). If we take יחד with בַּרְזֶל, then it is à priori to be supposed that in יחד the idea of sharpening lies; in the Arab. iron is simply called hadyda = חָדוּד, that which is sharpened, sharp; and a current Arab. proverb says: alḥadyd balḥadyd yuflah = ferrum ferro diffinditur (vid., Freytag under the word falah). But is the traditional text-punctuation thus understood to be rightly maintained? It may be easily changed in conformity with the meaning, but not so that with Böttcher we read יֵחָד and יֵחַד, the fut. Kal of חָדַד: “iron sharpeneth itself on iron, and a man sharpeneth himself over against his neighbour” - for פני after a verb to be understood actively, has to be regarded as the object - but since יָחַד is changed into יֻחָד (fut. Hiph. of חָדַד), and יַחַד into יָחֵד or יַחֵד (fut. Hiph. of חָדַד, after the form אָחֵל, incipiam, Deu 2:25, or אַחֵל, profanabo, Eze 39:7; Num 30:3). The passive rendering of the idea 17a and the active of 17b thus more distinctly appear, and the unsuitable jussive forms are set aside: ferrum ferro exacuitur, et homo exacuit faciem amici sui (Jerome, Targ., the Venet.). But that is not necessary. As וַיַּעַל may be the fut. of the Hiph. (he brought up) as well as of the Kal (he went up), so יָחַד may be regarded as fut. Kal, and יַחַד as fut. Hiph. Fleischer prefers to render יָחַד also as Hiph.: aciem exhibet, like יַֽעֲשִׁיר, divitias acquirit, and the like; but the jussive is not favourable to this supposition of an intransitive (inwardly transitive) Hiph. It may indeed be said that the two jussives appear to be used, according to poetic licence, with the force of indicatives (cf. under Pro 12:26), but the repetition opposes it. Thus we explain: iron is sharpened [gewetzt, Luther uses this appropriate word] by iron (ב of the means, not of the object, which was rather to be expected in 17b after Pro 20:30), and a man whets פני, the appearance, the deportment, the nature, and manner of the conduct of his neighbour. The proverb requires that the intercourse of man with man operate in the way of sharpening the manner and forming the habits and character; that one help another to culture and polish of manner, rub off his ruggedness, round his corners, as one has to make use of iron when he sharpens iron and seeks to make it bright. The jussive form is the oratorical form of the expression of that which is done, but also of that which is to be done.