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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 9:7 - 9:7
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In what now follows the discourse of Wisdom is continued; wherefore she directs her invitation to the simple, i.e., those who have not yet decided, and are perhaps susceptible of that which is better:
7 “He who correcteth a scorner draweth upon himself insult;
And he who communicateth instruction to a scorner, it is a dishonour to him.
8 Instruct not a scorner, lest he hate thee;
Give instruction to the wise, so he will love thee.
9 Give to the wise, and he becomes yet wiser;
Give knowledge to the upright, and he gains in knowledge.”
Zöckler thinks that herewith the reason for the summons to the “simple” to forsake the fellowship of men of their own sort, is assigned (he explains 6a as Ahron b. Joseph: הפרדו מן הפתאים); but his remark, that, under the term “simple,” mockers and wicked persons are comprehended as belonging to the same category, confounds two sharply distinguished classes of men. לֵץ is the freethinker who mocks at religion and virtue (vid., Pro 1:22), and רָשָׁע the godless who shuns restraint by God and gives himself up to the unbridled impulse to evil. The course of thought in Pro 9:7 and onwards shows why Wisdom, turning from the wise, who already are hers, directs herself only to the simple, and those who are devoid of understanding: she must pass over the לֵץ and רָשָׁע dna , because she can there hope for no receptivity for her invitation; she would, contrary to Mat 7:6, “give that which is holy to the dogs, and cast her pearls before swine.” יָסַר, παιδεύειν (with the prevailing idea of the bitter lesson of reproof and punishment), and הוֹכִיחַ, ἐλέγχειν, are interchangeable conceptions, Psa 94:10; the לְ is here exponent of the object (to bring an accusation against any one), as Pro 9:8, Pro 15:12 (otherwise as Isa 2:4; Isa 11:4, where it is the dat. commodi: to bring unrighteousness to light, in favour of the injured). יֹסֵֽר לֵץ is pointed with Mahpach of the penultima, and thus with the tone thrown back. The Pasek, placed in some editions between the two words, is masoretically inaccurate. He who reads the moral to the mocker brings disgrace to himself; the incorrigible replies to the goodwill with insult. Similar to the לֹקֵחַ לוֹ here, is מֵרִים tollit = reportat, Pro 3:25; Pro 4:27. In 7b מוּמוֹ is by no means the object governed by וּמוֹכִיחַ: and he who shows to the godless his fault (Meîri, Arama, Löwenstein: מומו = על־מומו, and thus also the Graec. Venet. μῶμον ἑαυτῷ, scil. λαμβάνει); plainly מומו is parallel with קלון. But מומו does not also subordinate itself to לֹקֵחַ as to the object. parallel קלון: maculam sibimet scil. acquirit; for, to be so understood, the author ought at least to have written לוֹ מוּם. Much rather מומו is here, as at Deu 32:5, appos., thus pred. (Hitzig), without needing anything to be supplied: his blot it is, viz., this proceeding, which is equivalent to מוּמָא הוּא לֵיהּ (Targ.), opprobrio ipsi est. Zöckler not incorrectly compares Psa 115:7 and Ecc 5:16, but the expression (macula ejus = ipsi) lies here less remote from our form of expression. In other words: Whoever correcteth the mockers has only to expect hatred (אל־תוכח with the tone thrown back, according to rule; cf. on the contrary, Jdg 18:25), but on the other hand, love from the wise.
Pro 9:8
The ו in וְיאהבך is that of consequence (apodosis imperativi): so he will love thee (as also Ewald now translates), not: that he may love thee (Syr., Targ.), for the author speaks here only of the consequence, not of something else, as an object kept in view. The exhortation influences the mocker less than nothing, so much the more it bears fruit with the wise. Thus the proverb is confirmed habenti dabitur, Mat 13:12; Mat 25:29.
Pro 9:9
If anything is to be supplied to תֵּן, it is לֶקַח (Pro 4:2); but תן, tradere, παραδιδόναι, is of itself correlat. of לקח, accipere (post-bibl. קִבֵּל), παραλαμβάνειν, e.g., Gal 1:9. הודיע לְ = to communicate knowledge, דעת, follows the analogy of הוכיח לְ, to impart instruction, תוכחת. Regarding the jussive form וְיוֹסֶף in the apod. imper., vid., Gesen. §128, 2. Observe in this verse the interchange of חכם and צדיק! Wisdom is not merely an intellectual power, it is a moral quality; in this is founded her receptivity of instruction, her embracing of every opportunity for self-improvement. She is humble; for, without self-will and self-sufficiency, she makes God's will her highest and absolutely binding rule (Pro 3:7).