Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 6:34 - 6:34
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
One who has been stolen from is to be appeased, but not the injured husband.
34 For jealousy is the fury of a husband,
And he spareth not in the day of vengeance.
35 He regardeth not any ransom,
And is not contented though thou offerest to him gifts ever so great.
The connection marks קִנְאָה as the subject; for it respects carnal intercourse with another's wife. Jealousy is not usually חֵמָה, the glow of anger (from יָחַם, as שֵׁנָה from יָשֵׁן), but חֲמַת־גָּבֶר (constr. as שְׂנַת), the glow of a man's anger, who with the putting forth of all his manly strength will seek satisfaction to his wounded honour. גֶּבֶר, here significant for אִישׁ, with the fundamental idea of strength, firmness; cf. Arab. jabr, to make fast, to put right again something broken in pieces, particularly a broken vessel, hence Algebra, properly the operation by which an incomplete magnitude is completed (Fl.). The following וְלִא־יַחְמֹּל (with the orthophonic Dagesh, as Pro 6:25 יַחְמֹּד, and with Makkeph) is connected with גבר, with definite reference to the man whom the faithless guest has made a cuckold. When the day comes in which the adultery brought to light demands and admits of vengeance, then, wounded in his right and in his honour, he knows no mercy; he pays no regard to any atonement or recompense by which the adulterer seeks to appease him and induce him not to inflict the punishment that is due: he does not consent, even though thou makest ever so great the gift whereby thou thinkest to gain him. The phrase נָשָׂא פָנִים, πρόσωπον λαμβάνειν, signifies elsewhere to receive the countenance, i.e., the appearance and the impression of a man, i.e., to let it impress one favourably; here it is used of the כֹּפֶר, i.e., the means by which covering, i.e., non-punishment, pardon of the crime, impunity of the guilty, is obtained. Regarding אָבָה, to consent to, vid., at Pro 1:10. שֹׂחַד, Aram. שׂוּחַד, is a gift, particularly bribery. That the language may again finally assume the form of an address, it beautifully rounds itself off.