Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/1612

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from the governed רעה, which may be the gen. (Psa 38:13) as well as the accus.

Verse 28

Pro 11:28 28 He that trusteth in his riches shall fall, And the righteous shall flourish like the green leaf. יפּול (plene after the Masora) as well as the figure וכעלה (cf. for the punctuation וכעשׁן, Pro 10:26) are singular, but are understood if one observes that in 28a a withered tree, and in 28b a tree with leaves ever green, hovers before the imagination of the poet (cf. Psa 1:4; Jer 17:8). The proud rich man, who on the ground of his riches appears to himself to be free from danger, goes on to his ruin (יפול as Pro 11:5, and frequently in the Book of Proverbs), while on the contrary the righteous continues to flourish like the leaf - they thus resemble the trees which perennially continue to flourish anew. Regarding עלה as originally collective (Symm. θάλλος), vid., at Isa 1:30, and regarding פּרח (R. פר, to break), here of the continual breaking forth of fresh-growing leaf-buds, vid., at Isa 11:1. The apostolic word names this continual growth the metamorphosis of believers, 2 Cor. 2:18. The lxx has read וּמעלה (approved by Hitzig): and he who raiseth up the righteous.

Verse 29

Pro 11:29 29 He that troubleth his own household shall inherit the wind, And a fool becomes servant to the wise in heart.
Jerome well translates: qui conturbat domum suam, for עכר closely corresponds to the Lat. turbare; but with what reference is the troubling or disturbing here meant? The Syr. translates 29a doubly, and refers it once to deceit, and the second time to the contrary of avarice; the lxx, by ὁ μὴ συμπεριφερόμενος τῷ ἑαυτοῦ οἴκῳ, understands one who acts towards his own not unsociably, or without affability, and thus not tyrannically. But עכר שׁארו Pro 11:17, is he who does not grudge to his own body that which is necessary; עכר ישׂראל is applied to Elijah, 1Ki 18:17, on account of whose prayer there was a want of rain; and at Pro 15:27 it is the covetous who is spoken of as עכר בּיתו. The proverb has, accordingly, in the man who “troubles his own house” (Luth.), a niggard and sordid person (Hitzig) in view, one who does not give to his own, particularly to his own servants, a sufficiency of food and of necessary recreation. Far from raising himself by his household arrangements, he shall only inherit wind (ינחל, not as the Syr. translates, ינחיל, in the general signification to inherit, to obtain, as Pro 3:35; Pro 28:10, etc.), i.e., he goes always farther and farther back (for he deprives his servants of all pleasure and love