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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 3:29 - 3:29
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A second illustration of neighbourly love is harmlessness:
Devise not evil against thy neighbour,
While he dwelleth securely by thee.
The verb חָרַשׁ, χαράσσειν, signifies to cut into, and is used of the faber ferrarius as well as of the τιγναριυς (Isaiah, p. 463), who with a cutting instrument (חֹרֵשׁ, Gen 4:22) works with metal or wood, and from his profession is called חָרָשׁ. But the word means as commonly to plough, i.e., to cut with the plough, and חֹרֵשׁ is used also of a ploughman, and, without any addition to it, it always has this meaning. It is then a question whether the metaphorical phrase רָעָה חָרַשׁ signifies to fabricate evil, cf. dolorum faber, mendacia procudere, ψευδῶν καὶ ἀπατῶν τέκτων, and the Homeric κακὰ φρεὶ βυσσοδομεύειν (Fleischer and most others), or to plough evil (Rashi, Ewald, etc.). The Targ., Syriac, and Jerome translate חשׁב, without deciding the point, by moliri; but the lxx and Graecus Venet. by τεκταίνειν. The correctness of these renderings is not supported by Ezek. 21:36, where חָרָשֵׁי מַשְׁחיִת are not such as fabricate destruction, but smiths who cause destruction; also מַחֲרִישׁ, 1Sa 23:9, proves nothing, and probably does not at all appertain to חרשׁ incidere (Keil), but to חרשׁ silere, in the sense of dolose moliri. On the one hand, it is to be observed from Job 4:8; Hos 10:13, cf. Psa 129:3, that the meaning arare malum might connect itself with חָרַשׁ רָעָה; and the proverb of Sirach 7:12, μὴ ἀροτρία ψεῦδος ἐπ ̓ ἀδελφῷ σου, places this beyond a doubt. Therefore in this phrase, if one keeps before him a clear perception of the figure, at one time the idea of fabricating, at another that of ploughing, is presented before us. The usage of the language in the case before us is more in favour of the latter than of the former. Whether יָשַׁב אֵת means to dwell together with, or as Böttcher, to sit together with, after Psa 1:1; Psa 26:4., need not be a matter of dispute. It means in general a continued being together, whether as sitting, Job 2:13, or as dwelling, Jdg 17:11.
(Note: Accentuate והוא־יושֵׁב לבֶטח. It is thus in correct texts. The Rebia Mugrash is transformed, according to the Accentuationssystem, xviii. §2.)
To take advantage of the regardlessness of him who imparts to us his confidence is unamiable. Love is doubly owing to him who resigns himself to it because he believes in it.