the softened form הישׁיר does not occur, we find only הישׁיר or הושׁיר.
Verse 26
The understanding of this rule is dependent on the right interpretation of פּלּס, which means neither “weigh off” (Ewald) nor “measure off” (Hitzig, Zöckler). פּלּס has once, Psa 58:3, the meaning to weigh out, as the denom. of פּלס, a level, a steelyard;[1] everywhere else it means to make even, to make level, to open a road: vid., under Isa 26:7; Isa 40:12. The admonition thus refers not to the careful consideration which measures the way leading to the goal which one wishes to reach, but to the preparation of the way by the removal of that which prevents unhindered progress and makes the way insecure. The same meaning appears if פּלּס, of cognate meaning with תּכּן, denoted first to level, and then to make straight with the level (Fleischer). We must remove all that can become a moral hindrance or a dangerous obstacle, in our life-course, in order that we may make right steps with our feet, as the lxx (Heb 12:13) translate. 26b is only another expression for this thought. הכין דּרכּו (2Ch 27:6) means to give a direction to his way; a right way, which keeps in and facilitates the keeping in the straight direction, is accordingly called דּרך נכון; and “let all thy ways be right” (cf. Psa 119:5, lxx κατευθυνθείησαν) will thus mean: see to it that all the ways which thou goest lead straight to the end.
Verse 27
In closest connection with the preceding, 27a cautions against by-ways and indirect courses, and 27b continues it in the briefest moral expression, which is here הסר רגלך מרע instead of סוּר מרע, Pro 3:7, for the figure is derived from the way. The lxx has other four lines after this verse (27), which we have endeavoured to retranslate into the Hebrew (Introd. p. 47). They are by no means genuine; for while in 27a right and left are equivalent to by-ways, here the right and left side are distinguished as that of truth and its contrary; and while there [in lxx] the ὀρθὰς τροχιὰς ποιεῖν is required of man, here it is promised as the operation of God, which is no contradiction, but in this similarity of expression betrays poverty of style. Hitzig disputes also the genuineness of the Hebrew Pro 4:27. But it continues explanatorily Pro 4:26, and is related to it, yet not as a gloss, and in the general
