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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 27:23 - 27:23
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An exhortation to rural industry, and particularly to the careful tending of cattle for breeding, forms the conclusion of the foregoing series of proverbs, in which we cannot always discern an intentional grouping. It is one of the Mashal-odes spoken of vol. i. p. 12. It consists of 11 = 4 + 7 lines.
23 Give heed to the look of thy small cattle,
Be considerate about the herds.
24 For prosperity continues not for ever;
And does the diadem continue from generation to generation?
25 (But) the hay is gone, and the after-growth appears,
And the grass of the mountains is gathered:
26 Lambs serve to clothe thee,
And goats are the price of a field.
27 And there is plenty of goats' milk for thy nourishment,
And for the nourishment of thy house,
And subsistence for thy maidens.
The beginning directs to the fut., as is not common in these proverbs, vid., Pro 26:26. With ידע, to take knowledge, which is strengthened by the inf. intensivus, is interchanged שִׁית לֵב, which means at Pro 24:32 to consider well, but here, to be careful regarding anything. צֹאן is the small or little cattle, thus sheep and goats. Whether לַֽעֲדָרִים (here and at Isa 17:2) contains the article is questionable (Gesen. §35. 2 A), and, since the herds are called הָֽעֲדָרִים, is not probable; thus: direct thy attention to the herds, that is, to this, that thou hast herds. פְּנֵי is the external side in general; here, the appearance which the sheep present; thus their condition as seen externally. In Pro 27:24 I formerly regarded נֵזֶר as a synonym of גֵּז, to be understood of the produce of wool, or, with Hitzig, of the shearing of the meadow, and thus the produce of the meadow. But this interpretation of the word is untenable, and Pro 27:25 provides for Pro 27:24, thus understood, no natural continuation of thought. That חֹסֶן signifies a store, fulness of possessions, property, and abundance, has already been shown under Pro 15:6; but נֵזֶר is always the mark of royal, and generally of princely dignity, and here denotes, per meton. signi pro re signata, that dignity itself. With the negative expression in 24a the interrogative in 24b is interchanged as at Job 40:9, with the implied negative answer; וְאִם, of an oath (“and truly not,” as at Isa 62:8), presents the same thought, but with a passionate colouring here unnecessary. Rightly Fleischer: “ready money, moveable property, and on the other hand the highest positions of honour, are far more easily torn away from a man, and secure to him far less of quiet prosperity, than husbandry, viewed particularly with respect to the rearing of cattle.” In other words: the possession of treasures and of a lofty place of power and of honour has not in itself the security of everlasting duration; but rural economy, and particularly the rearing of cattle, gives security for food and clothing. The Chethı̂b לדור דור is found, e.g., at Exo 3:15; the Kerı̂ לְדּוֹר וָדוֹר substitutes the more usual form. If Pro 27:25 was an independent whole (Hitzig: grass vanishes and fresh green appears, etc.), then the meaning here and onward would be that in the sphere of husbandry it is otherwise than is said in Pro 27:24 : there that which is consumed renews itself, and there is an enlarging circulation. But this contrast to Pro 27:24 must be expressed and formed unambiguously. The connection is rather this, that Pro 27:23 commends the rearing of cattle, Pro 27:24 confirms it, and 25ff. discuss what real advantages, not dependent on the accidents of public and social life, it brings.
I rejoice to agree with Fleischer in the opinion that the perfects of Pro 27:25 form a complex hypothetical antecedent to Pro 27:26 : Quum evanuerit gramen (sc. vetus) et apparuerint herbae recentes et collecta fuerint pabula montium, agni vestitui tuo (inservient) et pretium agri (sc. a te emendi) erunt hirci, i.e., then wilt thou nourish thy herds of sheep and goats with the grass on thy fields, and with the dried gathered hay; and these will yield for thee, partly immediately and partly by the money derived therefrom (viz., from the valuable goats not needed for the flocks), all that is needful for thy life. He also remarks, under גָּלָה, that it means to make a place void, empty (viz., to quit the place, évacuer la forteresse); hence to leave one's fatherland or home, to wander abroad; thus, rhetorically and poetically of things and possessions: to disappear. חָצִיר (from חָצֵר, to be green) is hay, and דֶּשֶׁא the after-growing second crop (after-grass); thus a meadow capable of being mowed a second time is though of. עִשְּׂבוֹת הָרִים (with Dag. dirimens, as e.g., עִנְּבֵי Deu 32:32) are the herbage of the mountains. The time when one proceeds to sheep-shearing, Pro 27:25 cannot intend to designate; it sets before us an interesting rural harvest scene, where, after a plentiful ingathering of hay, one sees the meadows again overspread with new grass (Ewald); but with us the shearing of sheep takes place in the month of May, when the warm season of the year is just at hand. The poet means in general to say, that when the hay is mown and now the herbage is grown up, and also the fodder from the mountains (Psa 106:20) has been gathered home, when thus the barns are filled with plenty, the husbandman is guaranteed against the future on all sides by his stock of cattle. חֲלֵב (from חָלֵב, Arab. halyb, with halab) is the usual metaplastic connecting form of חָלָב, milk. דֵּי (from דַּי, like חֵי from חַי), generally connected with the genitive of the person or thing, for which anything is sufficient (e.g., Pro 25:16, דַּיֶּךְ, to which Fleischer compares Arab. hasbuha, tassuha kifayuha), has here the genitive of the thing of which, or in which, one has enough. The complex subject-conception is limited by Rebia, and the governing דֵּי has the subordinated disjunctive Legarmeh. עִזִּים is a word of two genders (epicoenum), Gesen. §107, 1d. In וְחַיִּים the influence of the לְ still continues; one does not need to supply it meanwhile, since all that maintains and nourishes life can be called חיים (vita = victus), e.g., Pro 3:22. The lxx translates בֵּיתֶךָ by σῶν θεραπόντων, and omits (as also the Syr., but not the Syro-Hexap.) the last line as now superfluous; but that the maids attending to the cattle - by whom we particularly think of milkers - are especially mentioned, intentionally presents the figure of a well-ordered household, full of varied life and activity (Job 40:29).