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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 8:33 - 8:33
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The summons 32a, and its reason 32b, are repeated in these verses which follow:
33 “Hear instruction, and be wise,
And withdraw not.
34 Blessed is the man who hears me,
Watching daily at my gates,
Waiting at the posts of my doors!
35 For whosoever findeth me has found life,
And has obtained favour from Jahve;
36 And whosoever misseth me doeth wrong to himself;
All they who hate me love death.”
The imper. וַחֲכָמוּ, 33a (et sapite), is to be judged after Pro 4:4, וִֽחְיֵה, cf. the Chethı̂b, Pro 13:20; one sees this from the words וְאַל־תִּפְרָעוּ which follow, to which, after Pro 15:32, as at Pro 4:13, to אַל־תֶּרֶף, מוּסָר is to be placed as object: and throw not to the winds (ne missam faciatis; vid., regarding פרע at Pro 1:25), viz., instruction (disciplinam).
Pro 8:34
The אַשְׁרֵי here following שִׁמְעוּ is related to it as assigning a motive, like the וְאַשְׁרֵי (Pro 8:32) following שׁמעו; according to the Masora, we have to write אַשְׁרֵי with Mercha, and on the first syllable Gaja (vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, pp. 26, 29; cf. under Psa 1:1). לִשְׁקֹד signifies to watch, not in the sense of ad vigilandum, but vigilando, as Isa 5:22; Isa 30:1; Ewald, §380d. In contradistinction to הֵעִיר and הֵקִיץ, which denote watching as the consequence of wakefulness or an interruption of sleep, שָׁקַד signifies watching as a condition, and that as one which a person willingly maintains (Psychol. p. 275), the intentional watching (cf. Arab. shaḳidha, to fix penetrating eyes upon anything), with עַל of the place and object and aim (Jer 5:6; cf. העיר על, Job 8:6). The plurals דְּלָתוֹת (fores, as חֹמוֹת, Jer 1:18, maenia) and פְתָחִים are amplifying plurs. of extension, suggesting the idea of a palace or temple; מְזוּזֹת (postes portae, in quibus cardines ejus moventur, from זוּז, to move hither and thither) is intended to indicate that he to whom the discourse refers holds himself in closest nearness to the entrance, that he might not miss the moment when it is opened, or when she who dwells there presents herself to view. “The figure is derived from the service of a court: Wisdom is honoured by her disciples, as a queen or high patroness; cf. Samachschari's Golden Necklaces, Pr. 35: Blessed is the man who knocks only at God's door, and who departs not a nail's breadth from God's threshold” (Fl.).
Pro 8:35
This verse gives the reason for pronouncing those happy who honour Wisdom. The Chethı̂b is כִי מֹֽצְאַי מֹֽצְאֵי חַיִּים, but the passing over into the sing. 35b is harsh and objectionable; the Kerı̂ rightly regards the second מצאי as a mistaken repetition of the first, and substitutes כי מֹֽצְאִי מָצָא חיים, with which the וְחֹֽטְאִי (Pro 8:36) of the antithesis agrees. Regarding מֹֽצְאִי, for which, less accurately, מֹצְאִי (only with the Dechî without Metheg) is generally written, vid., Accentuationssystem, vii. §2. הֵפִיק, to get out = reach, exchanged with מָצָא, Pro 3:13 (vid., there); according to its etymon, it is connected with מִן, of him from or by whom one has reached anything; here, as Pro 12:2; Pro 18:22, God's favour, favorem a Jova impetravit.
Pro 8:36
חֹֽטְאִי may, it is true, mean “my sinning one = he who sins against me (חֹטֵא לִי),” as קָמַי is frequently equivalent to קָמִים עָלַי; but the contrast of מֹֽצְאִי places it beyond a doubt that חטא stands here in its oldest signification: to miss something after which one runs (Pro 19:2), seeks (Job 5:24), at which one shoots (Hiph. Jdg 20:16), etc., id non attingere quod petitur, Arab. âkhṭa, to miss, opposite to âṣab, to hit (Fl.). Just because it is the idea of missing, which, ethically applied, passes over into that of sin and guilt (of fault, mistake, false step, “Fehls, Fehlers, Fehltritts”), חטא can stand not only with the accusative of the subject in regard to which one errs, Lev 5:16, but also with the accusative of the subject which one forfeits, i.e., misses and loses, Pro 20:2, cf. Hab 2:10; so that not only מֹאֵס נַפְשׁוֹ, Pro 15:32 (animam suam nihili facit), but also חוֹטֵא נַפְשׁוֹ, Pro 20:2 (animam suam pessumdat), is synonymous with חֹמֵס נַפְשׁוֹ (animae suae h. e. sibi ipsi injuriam facit). Whoever misses Wisdom by taking some other way than that which leads to her, acts suicidally: all they who wilfully hate (Piel) wisdom love death, for wisdom is the tree of life, Pro 3:18; wisdom and life are one, 35a, as the Incarnate Wisdom saith, Joh 8:51, “If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death.” In the Logos, Wisdom has her self-existence; in Him she has her personification, her justification, and her truth.