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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 3:34 - 3:34
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
His relation to men is determined by their relation to Him.
As for the scorners, He scorneth them,
But to the lowly He giveth grace.
Most interpreters render the verse thus: “If the scorner He (even He, in return) scorneth, so He (on the other hand) giveth grace to the lowly.” For the sequence of the words in the consequence, in which the precedence of the verb is usual, e.g., Lev 12:5, we are referred to Pro 23:18, cf. Pro 24:14; but why had the poet placed the two facts in the relation of condition and consequence? The one fact is not the consequence but the reverse of the other, and accordingly they are opposed to each other in coordinated passages, Psa 18:26. The Vav in such antitheses has generally the meaning of “and on the other hand,” e.g., Job 8:20, while the lxx, Targ., Syriac, and Jerome altogether pass over the אִם as if it did not exist. Ziegler translates: “Truly! the scorner He scorneth;” but an affirmative אִם does not exist, the asseveration after the manner of an oath is negative. Bertheau's expedient would be more acceptable, by which he makes the whole of Pro 3:34 the protasis to Pro 3:35; but if this were intended, another subject would not enter into Pro 3:35. Thus 34a and 34b are two independent parallel passages; אִם־לַלְּצִים is the protasis: if as regards the scorners, i.e., if His conduct is directed to the scorners, so He scorneth. The ל denotes relation, and in this elliptical usage is like the ל of superscription, e.g., Jer 23:9. הוּא is the emphatic αὐτός: He on the contrary, and in a decisive way (Ewald, §314ab). Instead of יָלִיץ fo there might have been used יְלִיצֵם (for הֵלִיץ, where it occurs as a governing word, has the accusative, Pro 19:28; Psa 119:51), but we do not miss the object: if it relates to scorners (thus also Löwenstein translates), so it is He in return who scorneth. The lxx renders it: κύριος ὑπερηφάνοις ἀντιτάσσεται, ταπεινοῖς δὲ δίδωσι χάριν; cf. Jam 4:6; 1Pe 5:5. הוּא is used as a name of God (Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr. xvi. 400), on which account it is rendered like יהוה by κύριος. A ὑπερήφανος (appearing above others, i.e., overbearing) is the לֵץ, according to the definition Pro 21:24. the expression of the talio is generalized in ἀντιτάσσεται (resists them). For עניים the Kerı̂ has עֲנָוִים: עָנָו (from עָנָה, the ground-form עָנַו, Arab. 'anaw) is the lowly (ταπεινός), or he who bends himself, i.e., the gentle and humble, the patient, and the passive עָנִי, he who is bowed down, the suffering; but the limits of the conception are moveable, since in עני is presupposed the possession of fruit-virtues gained in the school of affliction.