《Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures – Proverbs (Vol. 2)》(Johann P. Lange)
16 Chapter 16
Verses 1-33
2. Admonition to a walk in the fear of God and obedience
Proverbs 16:1 to Proverbs 22:16
α) Admonition to trust in God as the wise Ruler and Governor of the world
Chap16
1 Man’s are the counsels of the heart,
but the answer of the tongue is Jehovah’s.
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but Jehovah weigheth the spirits.
3 Commit thy works to Jehovah,
so will thy plans be established.
4 Jehovah hath made every thing for its end,
even the wicked for the day of evil.
5 An abomination to Jehovah is every one who is proud in heart,
assuredly he will not go unpunished.
6 By mercy and truth is iniquity atoned,
and through the fear of Jehovah one departeth from evil.
7 If Jehovah hath pleasure in the ways of a Prayer of Manasseh,
he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
8 Better is a little with righteousness,
than great revenues without right.
9 Man’s heart deviseth his way,
but Jehovah directeth his steps.
10 Decision belongeth to the lips of the king,
in judgment his mouth speaketh not wickedly.
11 The scale and just balances belong to Jehovah,
His work are all the weights of the bag.
12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness,
for by righteousness is the throne established.
13 A delight to kings are righteous lips,
and he that speaketh uprightly is loved.
14 The wrath of a king (is as) messengers of death,
but a wise man appeaseth it.
15 In the light of the king’s countenance is life,
and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain.
16 To gain wisdom—how much better is it than gold!
and to attain understanding to be preferred to silver!
17 The path of the upright departeth from evil;
he preserveth his soul that giveth heed to his way.
18 Before destruction cometh pride,
and before a fall a haughty spirit.
19 Better is it to be humble with the lowly,
than to divide spoil with the proud.
20 He that giveth heed to the word findeth good,
and he who trusteth Jehovah, blessed is he!
21 The wise in heart shall be called prudent,
and grace on the lips increaseth learning.
22 Understanding is a fountain of life to him that hath it,
but the correction of fools is folly.
23 The heart of the wise maketh his mouth wise,
and increaseth learning upon his lips.
24 As honey of the comb are pleasant words,
sweet to the soul and health to the bones.
25 There is a way that seemeth right to Prayer of Manasseh,
but its end are ways of death.
26 The spirit of the laborer laboreth for him,
for his mouth urgeth him on.
27 A worthless man searcheth after evil,
and on his lips is as it were scorching fire.
28 A perverse man sendeth abroad strife,
and a backbiter separateth friends.
29 A violent man enticeth his neighbor,
and leadeth him in a way that is not good.
30 Shutting his eyes to devise mischief,
biting his lips, he bringeth evil to pass.
31 A crown of glory is the hoary head;
in the way of righteousness it shall be found.
32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
33 The lot is cast into the lap,
but from Jehovah is all its decision.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Proverbs 16:1.—In מֵיְהוָֹה the מִן stands as simply synonymous with the ל auctoris of the first clause.
Proverbs 16:3.—[A masc. verb agreeing with the fem, subject מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ, which is less unnatural where the verb precedes; see Bött, § 936, a.—A.]
Proverbs 16:4.—[לַמַּעֲנֵהוּ distinguished by the article and the daghesh as the noun מַעֲנֶה with preposition and suffix, and not the comp. preposition לְמַעָן with a suffix. See Green, Heb. Gram, § 246, 2, a.—A.]
Proverbs 16:7.—[יַשְׁלִם, Hiph. Imperf. written defective. Bött. suggests the proper reading as יַשְׁלֵם “absimilated” from the following אִ. See § 1013.—A.]
Proverbs 16:13.—[Ordinarily feminine forms of adjectives are employed in Hebrew to supply the lack of neuter and abstract forms. Occasionally as in יְשָׁרִים masc. forms are used in elevated Style. See Bött, § 707, 2.—A.]
Proverbs 16:16.—[Both the masc. and fem, forms of the Infin. constr. are here used, קְנֹה and קְנוֹת, but with a masc. predicate, the Niph. part. נִבְחָר, which has here the meaning of the Latin part. in dus. Bött, § 990, 3, ß, and997, 2, c.—A.] For examples of the form קְנֹה comp. Proverbs 21:3; Proverbs 31:4.
[Fuerst, however (Lex, sub verbo), pronounces decidedly in favor of the adjective construction. Bött. regards it as an Infin, § 987, 5, a.—A.]
Proverbs 16:20.—הִשְׁכִּיל appears in Nehemiah 8:13 construed with אֶל instead of עַל; compare, however, for this interchange of אל and על chaps. Proverbs 29:5; Jeremiah 6:10; Jeremiah 6:19, etc.
Proverbs 16:27.—[שְׂפָתיוֹ is one of the few instances in which in the Masoretic punctuation a dual or plural form is disregarded in the vocalization of the suffix. Cases of the opposite kind are not rare. Bött, § 886, c. The LXX conform to the K’thibh.—A.]
Proverbs 16:28.—נִרְגְּן (ψίθυρος, Sirach 5:14), is cognate with נָרָג, a verb which in the Arabic means susurro, to whisper.
Proverbs 16:30.—עָצָה, related to עָצַם, clausit, is found only here in the Old Testament. [It is a gesture accompanying and expressive of crafty scheming; Fuerst, s. v.]
Proverbs 16:33.—For the impersonal use of the passive יוּטַל with the accusative, comp. Genesis 4:18; Genesis 17:6; Joshua 7:15; Psalm 72:15, etc.
EXEGETICAL
1. [Our English version sacrifices entirely the antithetic nature and force of the verse.—A.]
Proverbs 16:2. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, i.e, according to his own judgment, comp. Proverbs 12:15. Lit, “something clean;” comp. Ewald, Lehrb., § 307, c.—But Jehovah weigheth the spirits, i.e, he tries them, not literally ponderable, with reference to their moral weight; he wishes to test their moral competence. The “ways” and the “spirits” here stand contrasted as the outward action and the inward disposition; comp. 1 Samuel 16:7. In the parallel passage, Proverbs 21:2, “hearts” (לִבּוֹת) occurs instead of “spirits” (רוּחוֹת) (compare also Proverbs 21:12) and “right” (יָשָׁר) instead of “clean” (זַךְ).
Proverbs 16:3. Commit thy works to Jehovah.—For this phrase to “roll something on some one,” i.e, to commit and entrust it wholly to him, comp. Psalm 22:8 (9), also Psalm 37:5 (where עַל is used instead of אֶל, “upon” instead of “to”).—So will thy plans be established,—i.e, thy thoughts and purposes, those according to which thou proposest to shape thy “works,” will then have a sure basis and result. Comp. Proverbs 19:21; Psalm 90:17.
2. [See critical notes. Bertheau, Kamph, De W, N, S, M, etc, agree with our author in the interpretation which is grammatically most defensible, and doctrinally least open to exception. An absolute Divine purpose and control in the creation and administration of the world is clearly announced, and also the strength of the bond that joins sin and misery.—A.]—Even the wicked for the day of evil, i.e, to experience the day of evil, and then to receive His well merited punishment. It is not specifically the day of final judgment that is directly intended (as though the doctrine here were that of a predestination of the ungodly to eternal damnation, as many of the older Reformed interpreters held), but any day of calamity whatsoever, which God has fixed for the ungodly, whether it may overtake him in this or in the future life. Comp. the “day of destruction,” Job 21:30; the “day of visitation,” Isaiah 10:3. [Holden’s rendering “even the wicked He daily sustains,” is suggested by his strong aversion to the doctrine of reprobation, but is not justified by the use of the Hebrew phrase, or by the slightest requirement or allowance in the parallelism. Liberal interpreters like Noyes find not the slightest reason for following him.—A.]
Proverbs 16:5. With clause a compare Proverbs 15:9; Proverbs 15:25-26; with b, Proverbs 11:21.—In regard to the two verses interpolated by the LXX (and Vulgate) after Proverbs 16:5, see Hitzig on this passage.
Proverbs 16:6. By mercy and truth is iniquity atoned.—“Mercy and truth” here unquestionably, as in Proverbs 3:3 (where see notes), describes a relation of man to his neighbor, and not to God, as Bertheau maintains (see in reply to his view especially Hoffmann’s Schriftbew, I, 518 sq.). [Nor is it God’s mercy and truth, as Holden suggests]. Loving and faithful conduct towards one’s neighbor Isaiah, however, plainly not in and of itself named as the ground of the expiation of sin, but only so far forth as it is a sign and necessary expression of a really penitent and believing disposition of heart, and so is a correlative to the fear of God, which is made prominent in the second clause; just as in the expression of Jesus with reference to the sinning woman; Luke 7:47; or as in Isaiah 58:7; Daniel 4:24, etc.—One departeth from evil, lit, “there is remaining far from evil,” i.e, this is the result: so Proverbs 16:17.—“Evil” is here according to the parallelism moral evil (not misfortune, calamity, in conformity with Proverbs 16:4; Proverbs 16:27, as Hitzig holds). This is however mentioned here with an included reference to its necessary evil results and penalties; therefore, if one chooses, it is evil and calamity together; comp. Proverbs 16:17.—With Proverbs 16:7 compare Proverbs 25:21-22, where as means to the conciliation of enemies there is mentioned the personal loving disposition of the man involved, who here appears as an object of the divine complacency.—With Proverbs 16:8 comp. Proverbs 15:16; with clause b in particular, Proverbs 13:23.
Proverbs 16:9. Man’s heart deviseth his way. The Piel of the verb here denotes a laborious consideration, a reflecting on this side and that.—But Jehovah directeth his steps. He determines them, gives them their direction, guides them (comp. notes on Proverbs 16:1, b). Umbreit, Bertheau, Ewald, Elster, [Noyes, Stuart,] “he makes them sure.” But then another conjugation (Pilel, יְכוֹנֵן) would probably have been necessary, as in Psalm 37:23. For the Hiphil comp. moreover Jeremiah 10:23.
3. Proverbs 16:10-15. Of kings as intermediate agents or instruments in God’s wise administration of the world.—A divine decision belongeth to the lips of the king. קֶסֶם, oracular decision or prediction, here used in a good sense of a divine utterance (effatum divinum; comp. in the Vulg, divinatio). As representative of Jehovah, the supreme ruler and Judges, a king, and especially the theocratic king of Israel, speaks words of divine validity and dignity (comp. Psalm 82:6; John 10:34), which give an absolutely certain decision, particularly in contested judicial questions. Therefore that continues true which the second clause asserts: In judgment his mouth doth not speak wickedly. “He deceives not, sins not” is not possibly, a wish (“his mouth should not err in judgment,” Umbreit, Bertheau), but “the passage rather lays down the principle: the King can do no wrong, in a narrower assertion of it, and with this difference, that it is here no political fiction, but a believing conviction. Righteousness at least in the final resort was under the theocratic monarchy of the Old Testament so absolute a demand of the idea, that one could not conceive it to be unrealized” (Hitzig). [We have here the theory of the king’s relations and obligations, and a clear statement of the presumptions of which he should, according to the divine order, have the benefit. These must be clearly overthrown by him, before the people are entitled to set them aside. Comp. Romans 13:1-2. Had this proverb been penned near the end, instead of near the beginning of the Jewish theocracy, it would have been difficult to avoid the suggestion that the ideal and the actual are often strangely, sharply at variance.—A.].
Proverbs 16:11. The scale and just balances belong to Jehovah. The proposition expresses the idea of an ownership in Jehovah as the first cause: for like agriculture ( Sirach 7:15) God instituted weights and measures, as an indispensable ordinance and instrument in just business intercourse.—His works are all the weights of the bag. His weights the oriental merchant (in Persia, e.g, even at the present day) is wont to carry in a bag; comp. Deuteronomy 25:13; Micah 6:11. Stones were in preference employed as weights because they do not wear away so easily, as iron, e.g, which from rusting easily changes its weight. Comp. Umbreit on this passage. Bertheau is quite too artificial. “His work is all of it stones of the bag,” i.e, is as sharply and accurately defined “as the smallest and finest weights (?).”
Proverbs 16:12-13. Two verses closely connected, expressing a single truth, which is brought out first negatively and then positively.—It is an abomination to kings to commit iniquity; i.e, injustice practised or at least attempted by their subjects is an abomination to them, representing, as they do, God and divine justice. Comp. Proverbs 16:10, and with clause b also especially Proverbs 25:5.—And he that speaketh uprightly is loved. For this use of the plur. masc. of יֶשֶׁר, upright, which is therefore “upright things, uprightness,” comp. Daniel 11:17; also Job 4:25.—The verb יֶאֱהָֽב is either to be taken with an indefinite subject, “him one loveth,” i.e, he is loved (Umbreit, Elster, etc.), or distributively, “him he loveth,” i.e, whoever is king for the time being.