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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 3:3 - 3:3
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With this verse the doctrine begins; אַל (not לֹא) shows the 3a does not continue the promise of Pro 3:2. חֶסֶד (R. חם, stringere, afficere) is, according to the prevailing usage of the language, well-affectedness, it may be of God toward men, or of men toward God, or of men toward one another - a loving disposition, of the same meaning as the N.T. ἀγάπη (vid., e.g., Hos 6:6). אֱמֶת (from אֲמֶנֶת), continuance, a standing to one's promises, and not falsifying just expectations; thus fidelity, πίστις, in the interrelated sense of fides and fidelitas. These two states of mind and of conduct are here contemplated as moral powers (Psa 61:8; Psa 43:3), which are of excellent service, and bring precious gain; and 4b shows that their ramification on the side of God and of men, the religious and the moral, remains radically inseparable. The suffix ֵם does not refer to the doctrine and the precepts, but to these two cardinal virtues. If the disciple is admonished to bind them about his neck (vid., Pro 1:9, cf. Pro 3:22), so here reference is made, not to ornament, nor yet to protection against evil influences by means of them, as by an amulet
(Note: Fleischer is here reminded of the giraffe in the Jardin des Plantes, the head of which was adorned by its Arabic keeper with strings and jewels, the object of which was to turn aside the ‛ain [the bad, mischievous look] from the precious beast.)
(for which proofs are wanting), but to the signet which was wont to be constantly carried (Gen 38:18, cf. Son 8:6) on a string around the neck. The parallel member 3c confirms this; 3b and 3c together put us in mind of the Tephillim (phylacteries), Exo 13:16; Deu 6:8; Deu 11:18, in which what is here a figure is presented in external form, but as the real figure of that which is required in the inward parts. לוּחַ (from לוּחַ, Arab. l'ah, to begin to shine, e.g., of a shooting star, gleaming sword; vid., Wetzstein, Deutsch. morgenl. Zeitschr. xxii. 151f.) signifies the tablet prepared for writing by means of polish; to write love and fidelity on the tablet of the heart, is to impress deeply on the heart the duty of both virtues, so that one will be impelled to them from within outward (Jer 31:33).