festinata (Jerome), do not necessarily suppose the phrase מהבּל = מבהל, Pro 20:21 Kerı̂, for wealth which comes מהבל is obtained in a windy (unsubstantial) manner and as if by storm, of which the proverb holds good: “so gewonnen so zerronnen” (= quickly come, quickly go). מהבל needs neither to be changed into that unhebraic מהבּל (Hitzig) nor into the cognate מבהל (Ewald), but yet inferior to מהבל in the content of its idea. The contrast of one who by fraud and deception quickly arrives at wealth is one who brings it together in his hand, ἐπὶ χειρός (Venet.), i.e., always as often as he can bear it in his hand and bring it forth (Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, and Lagarde), or according to the measure of the hand, κατὰ χεῖρα (which means “according to external ability”), so that על, which is applied to the formation of adverbs, e.g., Psa 31:24 (Hitzig) - by both explanations על־יד has the meaning of “gradually,” - is used as in the post-bibl. Hebr. על יד על יד = מעט מעט, e.g., Schabbath 156a (vid., Aruch under על) (distinguish from ביד = with thought, intentionally, Berachoth 52b). There is scarcely a word having more significations that יד. Connected with על, it means at one time side or place, at another mediation or direction; that which is characteristic here is the omission of the pronoun (על־ידו, על־ידיו). The lxx translates על יד with the unrestrained freedom which it allows to itself by μετ ̓ εὐσεβείας, and has following πληθυνθήσεται another line, δίκαιος οἰκτείρει καὶ κιχρᾷ (from Psa 37:26).
Verse 12
The figures of paradise in Pro 13:12 and Pro 13:14 require us to take along with them the intermediate verse (Pro 13:13). 12 Deferred waiting maketh the heart sick, And a tree of life is a wish accomplished.
Singularly the lxx Κρείσσων ἐναρχόμενος βοηθῶν καρδίᾳ, followed by the Syr. (which the Targ. Transcribes):[1]
Better is he who begins to help than he who remains in hesitating expectation, by which תחלת is doubled, and is derived once from הוחיל, to wait, and the second time from החל, to begin. If the lxx, with its imitators, deteriorates to such a degree proverbs so clear, beautiful, and inviolable, what may one expect from it in the case of those not easily understood! משּׁך signifies also, Isa 18:2, to be widely extended (cf. Arab. meshaḳ), here in the sense of time, as נמשׁך, to prolong, Isa 13:22, and post-bibl. משׁך הזּמן, the course of time.
- ↑ That the Targum of the Proverbs is a Jewish elaboration of the Peshito text, vid., Nöldeke in Merx' Archiv, Bd. ii. pp. 246-49.
