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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 31:2 - 31:2
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2 What, my son? and what the son of my womb?
And what, O son of my vows?!
The thrice repeated מה is completed by תַּֽעֲשֶׂה (cf. Köhler under Mal 2:15), and that so that the question is put for the purpose of exciting attention: Consider well, my son, what thou wilt do as ruler, and listen attentively to my counsel (Fleischer). But the passionate repetition of מה would be only affectation if thus interpreted; the underlying thought must be of a subjective nature: what shall I say, אֲדַבֵּר (vid., under Isa 38:15), what advise thee to do? The question, which is at the same time a call, is like a deep sigh from the heart of the mother concerned for the welfare of her son, who would say to him what is beneficial, and say it in words which strike and remain fixed. He is indeed her dear son, the son whom she carries in her heart, the son for whom with vows of thanksgiving she prayed to God; and as he was given her by God, so to His care she commits him. The name “Lemuel” is, as we interpret it, like the anagram of the fulfilment of the vows of his mother. בְּרִי bears the Aramaic shade in the Arameo-Arab. colouring of these proverbs from Massa; בְּרֵיהּ is common in the Aram., and particularly in the Talmudic, but it can scarcely be adduced in support of ברי. וּמֶה belongs to the 24, מֶה, with ח or ע not following; vid., the Masora to Exo 32:1, and its correction by Norzi at Deu 29:23. We do not write וּמַֽה־בַּר; מה, with Makkeph and with Metheg, exclude one another.