in republica habetur, tamen si cum adulterio comparatur, minus probrosum est. Regarding in the sense of appetite, and even throat and stomach, vid. Psychologie, p. 204. A second is, that the thief, if he is seized (but we regard NY not as the hypoth. perf., but as the part. deprehensus), may make compensation for his crime. The fut. De thus to be understood as the potential lies near from this, that a sevenfold compensation of the thing stolen is unheard of in the Israelitish law; it knows only of a twofold, fourfold, fivefold restoration, Ex. xxi. 37, xxii. 1–3, 8 (cf. Saalschütz, Mos. Recht, p. 554 ff.). This excess over that which the law rendered necessary leads into the region of free-will: he (the thief, by which we are now only to think of him whom bitter necessity has made such) may make compensation sevenfold, i.e. superabundantly; he may give up the whole possessions (vid. on in at i. 13) of his house, so as not merely to satisfy the law, but to appease him against whom he has done wrong, and again to gain for himself an honoured name. What is said in vers. 30 and 31 is perfectly just. One does not contemn a man who is a thief through poverty, he is pitied; while the adulterer goes to ruin under all circumstances of contempt and scorn. And: theft may be made good, and that abundantly; but adultery and its consequences are irreparable. Vers. 32, 33. Here there is a contrast stated to ver. 30:

32 He who commits adultery (adulterans mulierem) is beside himself, A self-destroyer-who does this.

33 He gains stripes and disgrace,

And his reproach is never quenched.

, which primarily seems to mean excedere, to indulge in excess, is, as also in the Decalogue, cf. Lev. xx. 10, transitive: ó μoxeúw γυναῖκα. Regarding being mad (herzlos = heartless): =amens (excors, vecors), vid. Psychologie, p. 254. iw np is he who goes to ruin with wilful perversity. A self-murderer-i.e. he intends to ruin his position and his prosperity in life—who does it, viz. this, that he touches the wife of another. It is the worst and most inextinguishable dishonouring of oneself. Singularly Behaji: who annihilates it (his soul), with reference to Deut. xxi. 12, Eccles. iv. 17, where ny would be equivalent to, kaтapyev, which is καταργεῖν, untrue and impossible.1 refers to the corporal punishment in

1 Behaji ought rather to have referred to Zeph. iii. 19, Ezek. vii. 27, xxii. 14; but there n ny means agere cum aliquo, as we say: mit jemandem abrechnen (to settle accounts with any one).

flicted on the adulterer by the husband (Deut. xvii. 8, xxi. 5); Hitzig, who rejects ver. 32, refers it to the stripes which were given to the thief according to the law, but these would be called

The punctuation is to be exchanged for

(nie). (Löwen

stein and other good editors). N has a more active signification than our "finden" (to find): consequitur, Tvyxável.

Vers. 34, 35. 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 NP as the subject; for it respects carnal intercourse with another's wife. Jealousy is not usually, the glow of anger (from D, as n from), but (constr. as ny), the glow of a man's anger, who with the putting forth of all his manly strength will seek satisfaction to his wounded honour. 72, here significant for , 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 by (with the orthophonic Dagesh, as ver. 25, and with Makkeph) is connected with 7, 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 D' N, πρоσwπоV λaußávew, 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 7, i.e. the means by which covering, i.e. non-punishment, pardon of the crime, impunity of the guilty, is obtained. Regarding 2, to consent to, vid. at i. 10.

, Aram., is a gift, particularly bribery. That the language may again finally assume the form of an address, it beautifully

rounds itself off.

THIRTEENTH INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURE, VII.

WARNING AGAINST ADULTERY BY THE REPRESENTATION OF ITS ABHORRENT AND DETESTABLE NATURE AS SEEN IN AN EXAMPLE.

The fearful desolation which adultery, and in general the sin of uncleanness, occasions in the life of the individual who is guilty of it, as well as in society, does not suffer the author of this discourse, directed to youth, to abandon his theme, which he has already treated of under different aspects. He takes up his warning once more, strengthens it by an example he himself had witnessed of one who fell a sacrifice to this sin, and gives it a very impressive conclusion, ver. 24 ff.

The introduction first counsels in general to a true appreciation of these well-considered life-rules of wisdom.

1 My son, keep my words,

And treasure up my commandments with thee. 2 Keep my commandments, and thou shalt live; And my instruction as the apple of thine eye. 3 Wind them about thy fingers,

Write them on the tablet of thy heart.

The LXX. has after ver. 1 another distich; but it here disturbs the connection. Regarding P, vid. at ii. 1; refers, as there, to the sphere of one's own character, and that subjectively. Regarding the imper., which must here be translated according to its sense as a conclusion, because it comes in between the objects governed by, vid. at iv. 4. There is punctuated with Silluk; here, according to Kimchi (Michlol 125a), with Segol-Athnach, , as in the Cod. Erfurt. 2 and 3, and in the editions of Athias and Clodius, so that the word belongs to the class na nne (with short instead of long vowel by the pausal accent): no reason for this is to be perceived, especially as (iv. 4) the Tsere (é from aj) which is characteristic of the imper. remains unchanged. Regarding 1, Arab. insân el-'ain, the little man of the eye, i.e. the apple of the eye, named from the miniature portrait of him who looks into it being reflected from it, vid. at Ps. xvii. 8; the ending ôn is here diminutive, like Syr. achuno, little brother, bruno, little son, and the like. On ver. 3, vid. at vi. 21, iii. 3. The Shan [n, prayer-fillets, phylacteries.]

1

were wound seven times round the left arm and seven times round the middle finger. The writing on the table of the heart may be regarded as referring to Deut. vi. 9 (the Mezuzoth).1

Vers. 4, 5. The subject-matter of this earnest warning are the admonitions of the teacher of wisdom, and through him of Wisdom herself, who in contrast to the world and its lust is the worthiest object of love, and deserves to be loved with the purest, sincerest love:

4 Say to wisdom: "Thou art my sister!"

And call understanding "Friend;"

5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman,
From the stranger who useth smooth words.

The childlike, sisterly, and friendly relationship serves also to picture forth and designate the intimate confidential relationship to natures and things which are not flesh and blood. If in Arabic the poor is called the brother of poverty, the trustworthy the brother of trustworthiness, and abu, um (D), achu, ucht, are used in manifold ways as the expression for the interchangeable relation between two ideas; so (as also, notwithstanding Ewald, § 2736, in many Hebr. proper names) that has there become national, which here, as at Job xvii. 14, xxx. 29, mediated by the connection of the thoughts, only first appears as a poetic venture. The figurative words of ver. 4 not merely lead us to think of wisdom as a personal existence of a higher order, but by this representation it is itself brought so near, that DN easily substitutes itself, ii. 3, in the place of D. of Solomon's address to the bride brought home is in its connection compared with Book of Wisdom viii. 2. While the oth of ning by no means arises from abstr. úth, but achôth is derived from achajath, ViD (as Ruth ii. 1, cf. лyin, iii. 2), here by Mugrash yi, properly means acquaintance, and then the person known, but not in the superficial sense in which this word and the Arab. ma'arfat are used (e.g. in the Arabic phrase quoted by Fleischer, kunna ashaab sarna m'aaraf-nous étions amis, nous en sommes plus que de simples connaissances), but in the sense of familiar, confidential alliance. The infin. p does not need for its explanation some intermediate thought to be introduced: quod eo conducet tibi ut (Mich.), but connects itself immediately as the purpose: bind wisdom to thyself and thyself to wisdom thus

1 [=the door-posts, afterwards used by the Jews to denote the passages of Scripture written on the door-posts.]

closely that thou mayest therewith guard thyself. As for the rest, vid. ii. 16; this verse repeats itself here with the variation of one word.

How necessary it is for the youth to guard himself by the help of wisdom against the enticements of the wanton woman, the author now shows by a reference to his own observation.

6 For through the window of my house,
From behind the lattice I looked out;

7 Then saw I among the simple ones,

Discerned among the young people, a youth devoid of

understanding.

=

rays

refers indeed to the immediately following clause, yet it actually opens up the whole following exemplification. The connection with ver. 5 would be closer if instead of the extended Semitic construction it were said: nam quum prospicerem vidi, etc. jibn (from ↳, to bore through) is properly a place where the wall is bored through. (from Arab. shaniba, to be agreeable, cool, fresh) is the window-lattice or lattice-window, i.e. lattice for drawing down and raising up, which keeps off the of the sun. p signifies primarily to make oneself long in order to see, to stretch up or out the neck and the head, kapadokeîv, Arab. atall, atal'a, and tatall'a of things, imminere, to overtop, to project, to jut in; cf. Arab. askaf of the ostrich, long and bent, with respect to the neck stretching it up, sakaf, abstr. crooked length. And is thus used, as in Arab. duna, but not b'ad, is used: so placed, that one in relation to the other obstructs the avenue to another person or thing: "I looked forth from behind the latticewindow, i.e. with respect to the persons or things in the room, standing before the lattice-window, and thus looking out into the open air" (Fleischer). That it was far in the night, as we learn at ver. 9, does not contradict this looking out; for apart from the moon, and especially the lighting of the streets, there were star-lit nights, and to see what the narrator saw there was no night of Egyptian darkness. But because it was night 6a is not to be translated: I looked about among those devoid of experience (thus e.g. Löwenstein); but he saw among these, observed among the youths, who thus late amused themselves without, a young man whose want of understanding was manifest from what further happened. Bertheau: that I might see, is syntactically impossible. The meaning of NN is not determined by the