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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 28:23 - 28:23
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23 He that reproveth a man who is going backwards,
Findeth more thanks than the flatterer.
It is impossible that aj can be the suffix of אַחֲרַי; the Talmud, Tamid 28a, refers it to God; but that it signifies: after my (Solomon's) example or precedence (Aben Ezra, Ahron b. Josef, Venet., J. H. Michaelis), is untenable - such a name given by the teacher here to himself is altogether aimless. Others translate, with Jerome: Qui corripit hominem gratiam postea inveniet apud eum magis, quam ille qui per linguae blandimenta decipit, for they partly purpose to read אַֽחֲרֵי־כֵן, partly to give to 'אַֽחֲ the meaning of postea. אחרַי, Ewald says, is a notable example of an adverb. Hitzig seeks to correct this adv. as at Neh 3:30., but where, with Keil, אַֽחֲרָו is to be read; at Jos 2:7, where אחרי is to be erased; and at Deu 2:30, where the traditional text is accountable. This אחרַי may be formed like אֲזַי and מָתַי; but if it had existed, it would not be a ἅπαξ λεγ. The accentuation also, in the passage before us, does not recognise it; but it takes אַחֲרַי and אדם together, and how otherwise than that it appears, as Ibn-Jachja in his Grammar, and Immanuel
(Note: Abulwalîd (Rikma, p. 69) also rightly explains אַחֲרַי, as a characterizing epithet, by אחרני (turned backwards).)
have recognised it, to be a noun terminating in aj. It is a formation, like לִפְנַי, 1Ki 6:10 (cf. Olshausen's Lehrb. p. 428f.), of the same termination as שַׁדַּי, חַגַּי, and in the later Aram.-Heb. זַכַּי, and the like. The variant אָֽחֳרַי, noticed by Heidenheim, confirms it; and the distinction between different classes of men (vid., vol. i. p. 39) which prevails in the Book of Proverbs favours it. A אדם אחרַי is defined, after the manner of Jeremiah (Jer 7:24): a man who is directed backwards, and not לְפָנִים, forwards. Not the renegade - for מוכיח, opp. מחליק לשׁון, does not lead to so strong a conception - but the retrograder is thus called in German: Rückläufige one who runs backwards or Rückwendige one who turns backwards, who turns away from the good, the right, and the true, and always departs the farther away from them (Immanuel: going backwards in his nature or his moral relations). This centrifugal direction, leading to estrangement from the fear of Jahve, or, what is the same thing, from the religion of revelation, would lead to entire ruin if unreserved and fearless denunciation did not interpose and seek to restrain it; and he who speaks
(Note: Löwenstein writes מוֹכִיחַ, after Metheg-Setzung, §43, not incorrectly; for the following word, although toned on the first syllable, begins with guttural having the same sound.)
so truly, openly, and earnestly home to the conscience of one who is on the downward course, gains for himself thereby, on the part of him whom he has directed aright, and on the part of all who are well disposed, better thanks (and also, on the part of God, a better reward, Jam 5:19.) than he who, speaking to him, smooths his tongue to say to him who is rich, or in a high position, only that which is agreeable. Laudat adulator, sed non est verus amator. The second half of the verse consists, as often (Psa 73:8; Job 33:1; cf. Thorath Emeth, p. 51), of only two words, with Mercha Silluk.