Prov. 10:5. There is now added a proverb which, thus standing at the beginning
of the collection, and connecting itself with v. 1, stamps on it the character
of a book for youth: He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; But he that is
sunk in sleep in the time of harvest is a son that causeth shame. Von Hofmann
(Schriftb. ii. 2. 403) rightly interprets בֵּן מַשְׂכִּיל and בֵּן מֵבִישׁ, with
Cocceius and others, as the subject, and not with Hitzig as predicate, for in
nominal clauses the rule is to place the predicate before the subject; and since
an accurate expression of the inverted relation would both times require הוא
referring to the subject, so we here abide by the usual syntax: he that gathers
in summer time is … Also the relation of the members of the sentence, 19:26, is
a parallel from which it is evident that the misguided son is called מבישׁ as
causing shame, although in הבישׁ the idea to put to shame (= to act so that
others are ashamed) and to act shamefully (disgracefully), as in השׂכיל the
ideas to have insight and to act intelligently, lie into one another (cf.
14:35); the root-meaning of השׂכיל is determined after שֵׂכֶל, which from
שָׂכַל, complicare, designates the intellect as the faculty of intellectual
configuration. בֹּושׁ, properly disturbari, proceeds from a similar conception
as the Lat. confundi (pudore). קַיִץ and קָצִיר fall together, for קיץ (from קוץ
= qâṭ, to be glowing hot) is just the time of the קציר; vid., under Gen. 8:22.
To the activity of a thoughtful ingathering, אָגַר, for a future store (vid.,
6:7), stands opposed deep sleep, i.e., the state of one sunk in idleness.
נִרְדַּם means, as Schultens has already shown, somno penitus obrui, omni sensu
obstructo et oppilato quasi, from רָדַם, to fill, to shut up, to conclude; the
derivation (which has been adopted since Gesenius) from the Arab. word having
the same sound, rdm, stridere, to shrill, to rattle (but not stertere, to
snore), lies remote in the Niph., and also contradicts the usage of the word,
according to which it designates a state in which all free activity is bound,
and all reference to the external world is interrupted; cf. תַּרְדֵּמָה, 19:15,
of dulness, apathy, somnolency in the train of slothfulness. The LXX has here
one distich more than the Hebr. text. Prov. 10:6. There now follow two proverbs
regarding the blessings and the curses which come to men, and which flow forth
from them. Here, however, as throughout, we take each proverb by itself, that it
might not appear as if we had a tetrastich before us. The first of these two
antithetic distichs is: Blessings (come) on the head of the just; But violence
covereth the mouth of the godless. Blessings are, without being distinguished,
bestowed as well as prayed for from above. Regarding the undistinguished uses of
לְרֹאשׁ (of a recompense of reward), בְּרֹאשׁ (of penal recompense), and
עַל־רֹאשׁ (especially of punishment), vid., under Gen. 49:26. If we understand,
with Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, Zöckler, and others, the two lines after v. 11,
19:28, cf. 10:18: the mouth of the wicked covers (hides under a mask) violence,
inasmuch as he speaks words of blessing while thoughts of malediction lurk
behind them (Ps. 62:5), then we renounce the sharpness of the contrast. On the
contrary, it is preserved if we interpret וּפִי as object: the violence that has
gone out from it covereth the mouth of the wicked, i.e., it falls back upon his
foul mouth; or as Fleischer (and Oetinger almost the same) paraphrases it: the
deeds of violence that have gone forth from them are given back to them in
curses and maledictions, so that going back they stop, as it were, their mouth,
they bring them to silence; for it is unnecessary to take פִי synecdochically
for פני (cf. e.g., Ps. 69:8), since in בְּרָכֹות 6a are perhaps chiefly meant
blessings of thankful acknowledgment on the part of men, and the giving
prominence to the mouth of the wicked from which nothing good proceeds is well
accounted for. The parallels do not hinder us thus to explain, since parts of
proverbs repeating themselves in the Book of Proverbs often show a change of the
meaning (vid., p. 18f.). Hitzig’s conjecture, יִכָּסֶה (better יְכֻסֶּה), is
unnecessary; for elsewhere we read, as here, that חמס (violence), jure talionis,
covers, יְכַסֶּה, the wicked, Hab. 2:17, or that he, using “violence,” therewith
covers the whole of his external appearance, i.e., gives to it the branded
impress of the unrighteousness he has done (vid., Köhler under Mal. 2:16).
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