Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 29:19 - 29:19

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 29:19 - 29:19


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

From the discipline of the people this series of proverbs again returns to the discipline of home:

19 With words a servant will not let himself be bettered;

For he understandeth them, but conformeth not thereto.

The Niph. נוֹסַר becomes a so-called tolerative, for it connects with the idea of happening that of reaching its object: to become truly bettered (taught in wisdom, corrected), and thus to let himself be bettered. With mere words this is not reached; the unreasonable servant needs, in order to be set right, a more radical means of deliverance. This assertion demands confirmation; therefore is the view of von Hofmann (Schriftbew. ii. 2. 404) improbable, that 19b has in view a better-disposed servant: supposing that he is intelligent, in which case he is admonished without cause, then the words are also lost: he will let them pass over him in silence without any reply. This attempted explanation is occasioned by this, that מַעֲנֶה can signify nothing else than a response in words. If this were correct, then without doubt its fundamental meaning would correspond with כִּי; for one explains, with Löwenstein, “for he perceives it, and may not answer,” i.e., this, that a reply cut off frustrates the moral impression. Or also: for he understands it, but is silent - in praefractum se silentium configit (Schultens); and thus it is with the ancients (Rashi). But why should not וְאֵין מַעֲנֶה itself be the expression of this want of any consequences? מענה cannot certainly mean humiliation

(Note: The Syr. and Targ. also think on ענה, for they translate: “for he knows that he receives no strokes.”)

(Meîri, after Exo 10:3, הכנעה), but why as an answer in words and not also a response by act (Stuart: a practical answer)? Thus the lxx ἐὰν γὰρ καὶ νοήσῃ, ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ ὑπακούσεται, according to which Luther: for although he at once understands it, he does not yet take it to himself. That מענה tahT . may mean obedience, the Aram. so understood, also at Pro 16:4. It denoted a reply in the most comprehensive meaning of the word, vid., at Pro 16:1. The thought, besides, is the same as if one were to explain: for he understands it, and is silent, i.e., lets thee speak; or: he understands it, but that which he perceives finds no practical echo.