Verse 8
The ו in ויאהבך is that of consequence (apodosis imperativi): so he will love thee (as also Ewald now translates), not: that he may love thee (Syr., Targ.), for the author speaks here only of the consequence, not of something else, as an object kept in view. The exhortation influences the mocker less than nothing, so much the more it bears fruit with the wise. Thus the proverb is confirmed habenti dabitur, Mat 13:12; Mat 25:29.
Verse 9
If anything is to be supplied to תּן, it is לקח (Pro 4:2); but תן, tradere, παραδιδόναι, is of itself correlat. of לקח, accipere (post-bibl. קבּל), παραλαμβάνειν, e.g., Gal 1:9. הודיע ל = to communicate knowledge, דעת, follows the analogy of הוכיח ל, to impart instruction, תוכחת. Regarding the jussive form ויוסף in the apod. imper., vid., Gesen. §128, 2. Observe in this verse the interchange of חכם and צדיק! Wisdom is not merely an intellectual power, it is a moral quality; in this is founded her receptivity of instruction, her embracing of every opportunity for self-improvement. She is humble; for, without self-will and self-sufficiency, she makes God's will her highest and absolutely binding rule (Pro 3:7).
Verse 10
These words naturally follow: 10 “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jahve, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
This is the highest principle of the Chokma, which stands (Pro 1:7) as a motto at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs. The lxx translate ראשׁית there (Pro 1:7), and תּחלּת here, by ἀρχή. Gusset distinguishes the two synonyms as pars optima and primus actus; but the former denotes the fear of God as that which stands in the uppermost place, to which all that Wisdom accomplishes subordinates itself; the latter as that which begins wisdom, that which it proposes to itself in its course. With יהוה is interchanged, Pro 2:5, אלהים, as here קדושׁים, as the internally multiplicative plur. (Dietrich, Abhandlungen, pp. 12, 45), as Pro 30:3, Jos 24:9; Hos 12:1, of God, the “Holy, holy, holy” (Isa 6:3), i.e., Him who is absolutely Holy. Michaelis inaccurately, following the ancients, who understood not this non-numerical plur.: cognitio quae sanctos facit et sanctis propria est. The דּעת, parallel with יראת, is meant of lively practical operative knowledge, which subordinates itself to this All-holy God as the normative but unapproachable pattern.
Verse 11
The singular reason for this proverb of Wisdom is now given:
