for their work in seeking the prosperity of his house), till in the end the reality of his possession dissolves into nothing. Such conduct is not only loveless, but also foolish; and a foolish person (vid., regarding אויל at Pro 1:7) has no influence as the master of a house, and generally is unable to maintain his independence: “and the servant is a fool to him who is wise of heart.” Thus the lxx (cf. also the lxx of Pro 10:5), Syr., Targ., Jerome, Graec. Venet., Luth. construe the sentence. The explanation, et servus stulti cordato (sc. addicitur), i.e., even the domestics of the covetous fool are at last partakers in the wise beneficence (Fl.), places 29b in an unnecessary connection with 29a, omits the verb, which is here scarcely superfluous, and is not demanded by the accentuation (cf. e.g., Pro 19:22).
Verse 30
Pro 11:30 30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And the wise man winneth souls.
The lxx translate, ἐκ καρποῦ δικαιοσύνης φύεται δένδρον ζωῆς; Hitzig takes thence the word צדק; but this translation discredits itself by the unnatural reversal of the relation of fruit and tree. The fruit of the righteous is here not the good which his conduct brings to him, as Isa 3:10; Jer 32:19, but his activity itself proceeding from an internal impulse. This fruit is a tree of life. We need to supplement פּרי [fruit] as little here as ארח [a traveller] at Pro 10:17; for the meaning of the proverb is, that the fruit of the righteous, i.e., his external influence, itself is a tree of life, namely for others, since his words and actions exert a quickening, refreshing, happy influence upon them. By this means the wise (righteousness and wisdom come together according to the saying of the Chokma, Pro 1:7) becomes a winner of souls (לקח as Pro 6:25, but taken in bonam partem), or, as expressed in the N.T. (Mat 4:19), a fisher of men, for he gains them not only for himself, but also for the service of wisdom and righteousness.
Verse 31
Pro 11:31 31 Lo, the righteous findeth on earth his reward; How much more the godless and the sinner!
The particles אף כּי signify properly, interrogatively: Shall it yet be said that...; it corresponds to the German “geschweige denn” [nedum] (Fl.). הן is already in bibl. Hebr. in the way of becoming a conditional particle; it opens, as here, the antecedent of a gradatio a minori ad majus introduced by אף כי, Job 15:15., Pro 25:5., cf. הן (הנה) with ואיך following, Gen 44:8; 2Sa 12:18. 2Sa 13:13 presents itself as the nearest parallel to שׁלּם, where it means, to
