Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 27:20 - 27:20

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 27:20 - 27:20


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The following proverb has, in common with the preceding, the catchword האדם, and the emphatic repetition of the same expression:

20 The under-world and hell are not satisfied,

And the eyes of man are not satisfied.

A Kerı̂ ואבדון is here erroneously noted by Löwenstein, Stuart, and others. The Kerı̂ to וַֽאֲבַדֹּה is here ואבַדּוֹ, which secures the right utterance of the ending, and is altogether wanting

(Note: In Gesen. Lex. this אבדה stands to the present day under אֲבֵדָה.)

in many MSS (e.g., Cod. Jaman). The stripping off of the ן from the ending וֹן is common in the names of persons and places (e.g., שְׁלֹמֹה, lxx Σολομών and שִׁלֹה); we write at pleasure either ow or oh (e.g., מְגִדּוֹ), Olsh. §215g. אֲבַדֹּה (אֲבַדּוֹ) of the nature of a proper name, is already found in its full form אֲבַדּוֹן at Pro 15:11, along with שְׁאוֹל; the two synonyms are, as was there shown, not wholly alike in the idea they present, as the underworld and realm of death, but are related to each other almost the same as Hades and Gehenna; אבדון is what is called

(Note: Vid., Frankel, Zu dem Targum der Propheten (1872), p. 25.)

in the Jonathan-Targum בֵּית אַבְדָּנָא, the place of destruction, i.e., of the second death (מוֹתָא תִנְיָנָא). The proverb places Hades and Hell on the one side, and the eyes of man on the other, on the same line in respect of their insatiableness. To this Fleischer adds the remark: cf. the Arab. al'ayn l'a taml'aha all'a altrab, nothing fills the eyes of man but at last the dust of the grave - a strikingly beautiful expression! If the dust of the grave fills the open eyes, then they are full - fearful irony! The eye is the instrument of seeing, and consequently in so far as it always looks out after and farther, it is the instrument and the representation of human covetousness. The eye is filled, is satisfied, is equivalent to: human covetousness is appeased. But first “the desire of the eye,” 1Jo 2:16, is meant in the proper sense. The eyes of men are not satisfied in looking and contemplating that which is attractive and new, and no command is more difficult to be fulfilled than that in Isa 33:15, “...that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.” There is therefore no more inexhaustible means, impiae sepculationis, than the desire of the eyes.