a fiendish delight in setting at variance men who stand nearly related. Thus this brief proverbial discourse rounds itself off, coming back again to 146 as a refrain. TWELFTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, VI. 20 ff. WARNING AGAINST ADULTERY, BY REFERENCE TO ITS FEARFUL CONSEQUENCES. After these three smaller sections, the teacher of wisdom returns here to the theme of the eighth: Warning against sins of the flesh, whose power and prevalence among men is so immeasurably great, that their terrible consequences cannot sufficiently be held up before them, particularly before youth. T: 20 Keep, my son, the commandment of thy father, Fasten them about thy neck. The suff. -ēm refers to the good doctrine (cf. vii. 3) pointed out by and in; the masc. stands, as is usual (e.g. i. 16, v. 2), instead of the fem. Regarding the figure, reminding us of the Tefillin and of Amuletes for perpetual representation, vid. under iii. 3. Similarly of persons, Cant. viii. 6. The verb (only here and Job xxxi. 36) signifies to bend, particularly to bend aside (Arab. 'ind, bending off, going aside; accus. as adv., aside, apud), and to bend up, to wind about, circumplicare. Ver. 22. The representation of the good doctrine is now personified, and becomes identified with it. When thou walkest, it will guide thee; When thou liest down, it will keep watch over thee; The subject is the doctrine of wisdom, with which the representation of wisdom herself is identified. The futures are not expressive of a wish or of an admonition, but of a promise; the form of the third clause shows this. Thus, and in the same succession as in the schema Deut. vi. 7, cf. xi. 19, are the three circumstances of the outward life distinguished: going, lying down, and rising up. The punctuation, found here and there, is Ben-Naphtali's variant; Ben-Asher and also the Textus rec. reject the Metheg in this case, vid. Baer's Metheg-Setzung, § 28. The verb, with its Hiph. in a strengthened Kal-signification, is more frequently found in the Psalms than in the Proverbs; the Arab. shows that it properly signifies to direct (dirigere), to give direction, to move in a definite direction. with, to take into protection, we had already ii. 11; this author has favourite forms of expression, in the repetition of which he takes delight. With lying down, sleeping is associated. nip is, as Ps. cxxxix. 18, the hypoth. perf., according to Ewald, § 357a: et ut expergefactus es, illa te compellabit. Bertheau incorrectly: she will make thee thoughtful. But apart from the fact that there is no evidence of the existence of this Hiph. in the language of the Bible, the personification demands a clearer figure. () signifies mental speech and audible speech (Gen. xxiv. 63, poet., in the Talmudic1 a common word); with 2, speaking concerning something (fabulari de), Ps. lxix. 13; with the accus., that which is said of a thing, Ps. cxlv. 5, or the address, briefly for, Job xii. 8 (as with accus. iv. 9): when thou art awake, wisdom will forthwith enter into conversation with thee, and fill thy thoughts with right matter, and give to thy hands the right direction and consecration. Ver. 23. Since in the idea of wisdom and of wholesome doctrine lie in one another, the author can proceed with proof: That For a lamp is the commandment, and instruction a light (Jerome, et And a way of life, disciplinary reproofs. 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 in, light, which enlightens the man who submits to it; and the commandment, ms, which directs men in every case to do what is right, and forbids that which is wrong (including the prohibition Lev. iv. 2), is, a lamp which, kindled at that light, enlightens all the darkness of ignorance with reference to human conduct and its consequences. 1 The conjecture thrown out by Wetstein, that (Arab.) shykh is equivalent to n'in (п'DD), speaker, is untenable, since the verb shakh, to be old, a so-called munsarif, i.e. conjugated throughout, is used in all forms, and thus is certainly the root of shykh. and are related to each other as general and particular, primary and derivative. Löwenstein accentuates incorrectly in is instead of is in (as the Cod. 1294 and the 3 Erfurt Codd.); vid. on the retrogression of the tone, not existing here, under iii. 15. The gen. p 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 D, the way to true life, direction how to obtain it. Ver. 24. The section thus closes: To keep thee from the vile woman, Regarding the genitive connection ns, a woman of a wicked character, vid. under ii. 14; and regarding the adjectival connection, under ver. 17; the strange tongue is the tongue (i) of the strange (foreign) woman (vid. p. 81), alluring with smooth words (ii. 16). Ewald, Bertheau: from her of a smooth tongue, the stranger, as Symm., Theod., ảπò λecoyλwoσov §évns; but np is a substantive (Gen. xxvii. 16), and as a fem. adject. form is without an example. Rather inpn is to be regarded as the first member and as the second of the st. constr., for the former constitutes one idea, and on this account remains unabbreviated; cf. Ps. lxviii. 22, Isa. xxviii. 1; but (1) this syntactical phenomenon is yet problematical, vid. Friedr. Philippi, Wesen und Ursprung des St. Constr. p. 17; and (2) the supposition of such an anomaly is here unnecessary. The proœmium of these twelve proverbial discourses is now at an end. Wisdom herself begins striking the note of the Decalogue : 25 Long not for her beauty in thy heart, And let her not catch thee with her eyelids; 26 Because for a harlot one cometh down to a piece of bread, The warning 25a is in the spirit of the "thou shalt not covet," הרהודי עבירה קשו מעבירה on the Mount. The Talmudic proverb (Joma 29a) means only that the imagination of the sinful act exhausts the body even more than the act itself. The warning, "let her not catch thee with her eyelids," refers to her (the adulteress's) coquettish ogling and amorous winking. In the reason added, beginning with "y" (thus it is to be punctuated), there is the appositional connection ins, Gesen. § 113; the idea of goes over into 266. " [=72, R., to round, vid. at o e Gen. xlix. 5], properly a circle of bread, is a small round piece of bread, such as is still baked in Italy (pagnotta) and in the East (Arab. kurs), here an expression for the smallest piece" (Fl.). Ty (constr. of Ty), as Job ii. 4, Isa. xxxii. 14, is used in the sense of vπép, pro, and with Ty there is connected the idea of the coming down to this low point. Ewald, Bertheau explain after the LXX., τιμὴ γὰρ πόρνης ὅση καὶ ἑνὸς ἄρτου, γυνὴ δὲ ἀνδρῶν τιμίας ψυχὰς ἀγρεύει. But nothing is said here of price (reward); the parallelism is synonymous, not antithetic: he is doubly threatened with loss who enters upon such a course. The adulterer squanders his means (xxix. 3) to impoverishment (vid. the mention of a loaf of bread in the description of poverty 1 Sam. ii. 36), and a man's wife (but at the same time seeking converse with another) makes a prey of a precious soul; for whoever consents to adulterous converse with her, loses not perhaps his means, but certainly freedom, purity, dignity of soul, yea, his own person. Ty comprehends-as jy, fisher's town [Zidon], Arab. syâd, hunter and fisher, show-all kinds of hunting, but in Hebr. is used only of the hunting of wild beasts. The root-meaning (cf. ) is to spy, to seize. T.: Vers. 27-29. The moral necessity of ruinous consequences which the sin of adultery draws after it, is illustrated by examples of natural cause and effect necessarily connected: 27 Can one take fire in his bosom And his clothes not be burned? 28 Or can any one walk over burning coals 29 So he that goeth to his neighbour's wife, No one remains unpunished that toucheth her. We would say: Can any one, without being, etc.; the former is the Semitic "extended (paratactic)1 construction." The first has the conjunctive Shalsheleth. signifies to seize and draw forth a brand or coal with the fire-tongs or shovel (n, the instrument for this); cf. Arab. khât, according to Lane, “he seized or snatched 1 [The Tapaτantinos xpóvos denotes the imperfect tense, because it is still extended to the future.] away a thing;" the form is Kal, as n (vid. Köhler, De Tetragrammate, 1867, p. 10). P' (properly indentation) is here not the lap, but, as Isa. xl. 11, the bosom. Ver. 28. A second example of destructive consequences naturally following a certain course is introduced with DN of the double question. (from 5, after the form D, but for which non is used) is the regular modification of gaḥḥalîm (Gesen. § 27, 2). The fem. " is followed here (cf. on the other hand i. 16) by the rhythmically full-sounding form n (retaining the distinction of gender), from me, Arab. kwy, to burn so that a brand-mark (?, Isa. iii. 24, cauterium) remains. TT Ver. 29. The instruction contained in these examples here follows: τὸ εἰς πῦρ καὶ εἰς γυναῖκα ἐμπεσεῖν ἴσον υπάρχει (Pythagoras in Maximi Eclog. c. 39). Sia is here, as the second in Ps. li. 1, a euphemism, and, to come in contact with, means, as, to touch, Gen. xx. 6. He who goes in to his neighbour's wife shall not do so with impunity (??). Since both expressions denote fleshly nearness and contact, so it is evident he is not guiltless. Vers. 30, 31. The thief and the adulterer are now placed in comparison with one another, in such a way that adultery is supposed to be a yet greater crime. 30 One does not treat the thief scornfully if he steals To satisfy his craving when he is hungry; 31 Being seized, he may restore sevenfold, Give up the whole wealth of his house. For the most part 30a is explained: even when this is the case, one does not pass it over in the thief as a bagatelle. Ewald remarks: S stands here in its nearest signification of overlooking, whence first follows that of contemning. But this "nearest" signification is devised wholly in favour of this passage ;-the interpretation, "they do not thus let the thief pass," is set aside by Cant. viii. 1,7; for by 316, cf. Cant. viii. 76, and 34a, cf. Cant. viii. 6a, it is proved that from ver. 30 on, reminiscences from the Canticles, which belong to the literature of the Chokma, find their way into the Mashal language of the author. Hitzig's correct supposition, that always signifies positive contemning, does not necessitate the interrogative interpretation: "Does not one despise the thief if...?" Thus to be understood, the author ought to have written Nor. Michaelis rightly furtum licet merito pro infami |