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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 28:8 - 28:8
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This verse continues a series of proverbs (commencing in Pro 28:7) beginning with a participle:
He who increaseth his wealth by interest and usury,
Gathereth it for one who is benevolent toward the lowly.
Wealth increased by covetous plundering of a neighbour does not remain with him who has scraped it together in so relentless a manner, and without considering his own advantage; but it goes finally into the possession of one who is merciful towards the poor, and thus it is bestowed in a manner that is pleasing to God (cf. Pro 13:22; Job 22:16.). The Kerı̂, which drops the second ב, appears to wish to mitigate the sharpness of the distinction of the second idea supposed in its repetition. But Lev 25:35-37, where an Israelite is forbidden to take usury and interest from his brother, the two are distinguished; and Fleischer rightly remarks that there נשׁך means usury or interest taken in money, and תרבית usury or interest taken in kind; i.e., of that which one has received in loan, such as grain, or oil, etc., he gives back more than he has received. In other words: נשׁך is the name of the interest for the capital that is lent, and מַרְבִּית, or, as it is here called תרבית, the more, the addition thereto, the increase (Luther: ubersatz). This meaning of gain by means of lending on interest remains in נשׁך; but תרבית, according to the later usus loq., signifies gain by means of commerce, thus business-profit, vid., Baba Mezîa, v. 1. Instead of יְקַבְּצֶנּוּ, more recent texts have the Kal
(Note: If, as Hitzig, after J. H. Michaelis, remarks, the word were Ben-Asher's יְקַבְּצֶנּוּ, then it would be thus rightly punctuated by Clodius and the moderns. Kimchi, in the Wörterbuch under קָבַץ, adduces this word as Ben-Asher's. But the Masora knows nothing of it. It marks יְקַבְּצֶנּוּ, Jer 31:10, with לית as unicum, and thus supposes for the passages before us יְקַבְּצֶנּוּ, which certainly is found in MSS, and is also marked on the margin with לית as unicum.)
יְקַבְּצֶנּוּ. לְחוֹנֵן also is, as Pro 14:31; Pro 19:17, part. Kal, not inf. Poel: ad largiendum pauperibus (Merc., Ewald, Bertheau), for there the person of him who presents the gift is undefined; but just this, that it is another and better-disposed, for whom, without having it in view, the collector gathers his stores, is the very point of the thought.