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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 4:5 - 4:5
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The exhortation of the father now specializes itself:
5 Get wisdom, get understanding;
Forget not and turn not from the words of my mouth.
6 Forsake her not, so shall she preserve thee;
Love her, so shall she keep thee.
Wisdom and understanding are (5a) thought of as objects of merchandise (cf. Pro 23:23; Pro 3:14), like the one pearl of great price, Mat 13:46, and the words of fatherly instruction (5b), accordingly, as offering this precious possession, or helping to the acquisition of it. One cannot indeed say correctly אל־תשׁכח מֵאִמְרֵי־פי, but אל־תשׁכח מִשְּׁמֹר אמרי־פי (Psa 102:5); and in this sense אל־תַּשְׁכַּח goes before, or also the accus. object, which in אל־תשכח the author has in his mind, may, since he continues with אַל־תֵּט, now not any longer find expression as such. That the אמרי־פי are the means of acquiring wisdom is shown in Pro 4:6, where this continues to be the primary idea. The verse, consisting of only four words, ought to be divided by Mugrash;
(Note: According to correct readings in codd. and older editions, ותשמרֶךָּ has also indeed Rebia Mugrash, and אֱהָבֶהָ, Mercha (with Zinnorith); vid., Torath Emeth, p. 47, §6; Accentuationssystem, xviii. §1, 2; and regarding the Zinnorith, see Liber Psalmorum Hebraicus by S. Baer, p. xii.)
the Vav (ו) in both halves of the verse introduces the apodosis imperativi (cf. e.g., Pro 3:9., and the apodosis prohibitivi, Pro 3:21.). The actual representation of wisdom, Pro 4:5, becomes in Pro 4:6 personal.