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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 29:13 - 29:13
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13 The poor man and the usurer meet together -
Jahve lighteneth the eyes of both.
A variation of Pro 22:2, according to which the proverb is to be understood in both of its parts. That אִישׁ תְּכָכִים is the contrast of רָשׁ, is rightly supposed in Temura 16b; but Rashi, who brings out here a man of moderate learning, and Saadia, a man of a moderate condition (thus also the Targ. גַּבְרָא מַצְעָיָא, after Buxtorf, homo mediocris fortunae), err by connecting the word with תָּוֶךְ. The lxx δανειστοῦ καὶ χρεωφειλέτου (ἀλλήλοις συνελθόντων), which would be more correct inverted, for אישׁ תככים is a man who makes oppressive taxes, high previous payments of interest; the verbal stem תָּכַךְ, Arab. tak, is a secondary to R. wak, which has the meanings of pressing together, and pressing firm (whence also the middle is named; cf. Arab. samym âlaklab, the solid = the middle point of the heart). תֹּךְ, with the plur. תככים, scarcely in itself denotes interest, τόκος; the designation אישׁ תככים includes in it a sensible reproach (Syr. afflictor), and a rentier cannot be so called (Hitzig). Luther: Reiche [rich men], with the marginal note: “who can practise usury as they then generally all do?” Therefore Löwenstein understands the second line after 1Sa 2:7 : God enlighteneth their eyes by raising the lowly and humbling the proud. But this line, after Pro 22:2, only means that the poor as well as the rich owe the light of life (Psa 13:4) to God, the creator and ruler of all things - a fact which has also its moral side: both are conditioned by Him, stand under His control, and have to give to Him an account; or otherwise rendered: God maketh His sun to rise on the low and the high, the evil and the good (cf. Mat 5:45) - an all-embracing love full of typical moral motive.
(Note: מאיר has, by Löwenstein, Mehuppach Legarmeh, but incorrectly, since after Legarmeh two conjunctives cannot occur. Also Norzi with Mehuppach Mercha is irregular, since Ben-Asher recognises only two examples of this double accentuation to which this מאיר does not belong; vid., Thorath Emeth, p. 12. That the penultima toning מֵאִיר in several editions is false scarcely needs to be remarked. Jablonski rightly points with Mehuppach on the ult., and Zinnorith on the preceding open syllable.)