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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 31:16 - 31:16
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This industry - a pattern for the whole house - this punctuality in the management of household matters, secures to her success in the extension of her household wealth:
16 ז She seeketh a field and getteth possession of it;
Of the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
The field which she considereth, towards which her wish and her effort are directed, is perhaps not one beyond those which she already possesses, but one which has hitherto been wanting to her family; for the poet has, after Pro 31:23, an inhabitant of a town in his eye, - a woman whose husband is not a landlord, but has a business in the city. The perf. זָֽמְמָה precedes and gives circumstantiality to the chief factum expressed by וַתִּקָּחֶהָ. Regarding זָמַם, vid., Pro 21:27. “לָקַח is the general expression for purchasing, as נָתַן, 24b, for selling. Thus the Aram. and Arab. אֲחַד, while, (Arab.) akhadh w'ṭa, Turk. alisch werisch (from elmeḳ, to take, and wirmek, to give - viz. ṣâtun, in the way of selling; Lat. venum), post-bibl. מַשָּׂא וּמַתָּן or מִקָּח וּמִמְכָּר, denotes giving and taking = business in general” (Fleischer). In 16b the Chethı̂b is, with Ewald and Bertheau, to be read נְטַע, and, with Hitzig, to be made dependent on ותקחה, as parallel obj.: “of her hands' fruit (she gaineth) a planting of vines.” But a planting of vines would be expressed by מַטַּע כרם (Mic 1:6); and the Kerı̂ נָֽטְעָה is more acceptable. The perf., as a fundamental verbal form, is here the expression of the abstract present: she plants a vineyard, for she purchases vines from the profit of her industry (Isa 7:23, cf. Pro 5:2).