Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 28:22 - 28:22

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 28:22 - 28:22


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

22 The man of an evil eye hasteneth after riches,

And knoweth not that want shall come upon him.

Hitzig renders 'אִישׁ וגו the man of an evil eye as apos. of the subject; but in that case the phrase would have been אישׁ רע עין נבהל להון (cf. e.g., Pro 29:1). רע עין (Pro 23:6) is the jealous, envious, grudging, and at the same time covetous man. It is certainly possible that an envious man consumes himself in ill-humour without quietness, as Hitzig objects; but as a rule there is connected with envy a passionate endeavour to raise oneself to an equal height of prosperity with the one who is the object of envy; and this zeal, proceeding from an impure motive, makes men blind to the fact that thereby they do not advance, but rather degrade themselves, for no blessing can rest on it; discontentedness loses, with that which God has assigned to us, deservedly also that which it has. The pret. נבחַל, the expression of a fact; the part. נבהָל, the expression of an habitual characteristic action; the word signifies praeceps (qui praeceps fertur), with the root-idea of one who is unbridled, who is not master of himself (vid., under Psa 2:5, and above at Pro 20:21). The phrase wavers between נִֽבֳהָל (Kimchi, under בהל; and Norzi, after Codd. and old editions) and נבהָל (thus, e.g., Cod. Jaman); only at Psa 30:8 נבהָל stands unquestioned. חֶסֶר [want] is recognised by Symmachus, Syr., and Jerome. To this, as the authentic reading, cf. its ingenious rendering of Bereschith Rabba, c. 58, to Gen 23:14. The lxx reads, from 22b, that a חסיד, ἐλεήμων, will finally seize the same riches, according to which Hitzig reads חֶסֶד, disgrace, shame (cf. Pro 25:10).