Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 6:23 - 6:23
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Since in הִיא the idea of wisdom and of wholesome doctrine lie in one another, the author can proceed with proof:
For a lamp is the commandment, and instruction a light (Jerome et lex lux);
And a way of life, disciplinary reproofs.
That תורה has here not the positive, specifically Israelitish sense, but the generalized sense of instruction in conformity with truth regarding the will of God and the duty of man, vid., p. 42. This instruction mediated by man, but of divine origin, is אוֹר, light, which enlightens the man who submits to it; and the commandment, מִצְוָה, which directs men in every case to do what is right, and forbids that which is wrong (including the prohibition Lev 4:2), is נֵר, a lamp which, kindled at that light, enlightens all the darkness of ignorance with reference to human conduct and its consequences. אור and נר are related to each other as general and particular, primary and derivative. Löwenstein accentuates incorrectly תּוֹרָהוְ אוֹר instead of תּוֹרָהוְ אוֹר (as the Cod. 1294 and the 3 Erfurt Codd.); vid., on the retrogression of the tone, not existing here, under Pro 3:15. The gen. מוּסָר denotes the object or character of the admonition: not disciplinary in the external sense of the word, but rather moral, having in view discipline in the sense of education, i.e., moral edification and elevation. Such corrections are דֶּרֶךְ חַיִּים, the way to true life, direction how to obtain it.