Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 3:9 - 3:9

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 3:9 - 3:9


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

9 Honour Jahve with thy wealth,

And with the first-fruits of all thine increase:

10 Then shall thy barns be filled with plenty,

And thy vats overflow with must.

It may surprise us that the Chokma, being separated from the ceremonial law, here commends the giving of tithes. But in the first place, the consciousness of the duty of giving tithes is older than the Mosaic law, Gen 28:22; in this case, the giving of tithes is here a general ethical expression. עִשֵּׂר and מַעֲשֵׂר do not occur in the Book of Proverbs; in the post-biblical phraseology the tithes are called חֵלֶק הַגָּבֹהַּ, the portion of the Most High. כִּבֵּד, as the Arab. waḳḳra, to make heavy, then to regard and deal with as weighty and solemn (opp. קִלֵּל, to regard and treat as light, from קָלַל = Arab. hân, to be light). הוֹן, properly lightness in the sense of aisance, opulency, forms with כַּבֵּד an oxymoron (fac Jovam gravem de levitate tua), but one aimed at by the author neither at Pro 1:13 nor here. מִן (in מֵהוֹנֶךָ and 'מֵרֵ, Pro 3:9) is in both cases partitive, as in the law of the Levitical tenths, Lev 27:30, and of the Challa (heave-offering of dough), Num 15:21, where also רֵאשׁיִת (in Heb 7:4, ἀκροθίνια) occurs in a similar sense, cf. Num 18:12 (in the law of the Theruma or wave-offering of the priests), as also תְּבוּאָה in the law of the second tenths, Deu 14:22, cf. Num 18:30 (in the law of the tenths of the priests).

Pro 3:10

With ו apodosis imperativi the conclusion begins. שָׂבָע, satisfaction, is equivalent to fulness, making satisfied, and that, too, richly satisfied; תִּירוֹשׁ ;deif also is such an accusative, as verbs of filling govern it, for פָּרַץ, to break through especially to overflow, signifies to be or become overflowingly full (Job 1:10). אָסָם (from אָסַם, Chald. אֲסַן, Syr. âsan, to lay up in granaries) is the granary, of the same meaning as the Arab. âkhzan (from khazan = חָסַן, Isa 23:18, recondere), whence the Spanish magazen, the French and German magazin. יֶקֶב (from יָקַב, Arab. wakab, to be hollow) is the vat or tub into which the must flows from the wine-press (גַּת or פּוּרָה), λάκκος or ὑπολήνιον. Cf. the same admonition and promise in the prophetic statement of Mal 3:10-12.