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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 31:13 - 31:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The poet now describes how she disposes of things:
13 ד She careth for wool and flax,
And worketh these with her hands' pleasure.
The verb דָּרַשׁ proceeds, as the Arab. shows,
(Note: The inquirer is there called (Arab.) daras, as libros terens.)
from the primary meaning terere; but to translate with reference thereto: tractat lanam et linum (lxx, Schultens, Dathe, Rosemüller, Fleischer), is inadmissible. The Heb. דרשׁ does not mean the external working at or manufacturing of a thing; but it means, even when it refers to this, the intention of the mind purposely directed thereto. Thus wool and flax come into view as the material of work which she cares to bring in; and וַתַּעַשׂ signifies the work itself, following the creation of the need of work. Hitzig translates the second line: she works at the business of her hands. Certainly בְ after עָשָׂה may denote the sphere of activity, Exo 31:4; 1 Kings 5:30, etc.; but if חֵפֶץ had here the weakened signification business, πρᾶγμα, - which it gains in the same way as we say business, affair, of any object of care - the scarcely established meaning presents itself, that she shows herself active in that which she has made the business of her hands. How much more beautiful, on the contrary, is the thought: she is active with her hands' pleasure! חֵפֶץ is, as Schultens rightly explains, inclinatio flexa et propensa in aliquid, and pulchre manibus diligentissimis attribuitur lubentia cum oblectatione et per oblectationem sese animans. עָשָׂה, without obj. accus., signifies often: to accomplish, e.g., Ps. 22:32; here it stands, in a sense, complete in itself, and without object. accus., as when it means “handeln” [agere], Pro 13:16, and particularly to act in the service of God = to offer sacrifice, Exo 10:25; it means here, and at Rth 2:19; Hab 2:4, to be active, as at Isa 19:15, to be effective; וַתַּעַשׂ is equivalent to ותעשׂ בַּמְּלָאכָה or ותעשׂ מְלַאכתָּהּ (cf. under Pro 10:4). And pleasure and love for the work, חֵפֶץ, can be attributed to the hands with the same right as at Psa 78:72, discretion. The disposition which animates a man, especially his inner relation to the work devolving upon him, communicates itself to his hands, which, according as he has joy or aversion in regard to his work, will be nimble or clumsy. The Syr. translates: “and her hands are active after the pleasure of her heart;” but בחפץ is not equivalent to כְּחֶפְצָהּ; also בְּחֵפֶץ, in the sense of con amore (Böttcher), is not used.