fundamental idea of the proverb is, that sacrifices well-pleasing to God, prayers acceptable to God (that are heard, Pro 15:29), depend on the relations in which the heart and life of the man stand to God.
Verse 9
Another proverb with the key-word תועבת
An abomination to Jahve is the way of the godless;
But He loveth him who searcheth after righteousness.
The manner and rule of life is called the way. מרדּף is the heightening of רדף, Pro 21:21, and can be used independently in bonam, as well as in malam partem (Pro 11:19, cf. Pro 13:21). Regarding the form יאהב, vid., Fleischer in Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitsch. xv. 382.
Verse 10
Pro 15:10 10 Sharp correction is for him who forsaketh the way; Whoever hateth instruction shall die.
The way, thus absolute, is the God-pleasing right way (Pro 2:13), the forsaking of which is visited with the punishment of death, because it is that which leadeth unto life (Pro 10:17). And that which comes upon them who leave it is called מוּסר רע, castigatio dura, as much as to say that whoever does not welcome instruction, whoever rejects it, must at last receive it against his will in the form of peremptory punishment. The sharp correction (cf. Isa 28:28, Isa 28:19) is just the death under which he falls who accepts of no instruction (Pro 5:23), temporal death, but that as a token of wrath which it is not for the righteous (Pro 14:32).
Verse 11
Pro 15:11 11 The underworld [Sheol] and the abyss are before Jahve; But how much more the hearts of the children of men!
A syllogism, a minori ad majus, with אף כּי (lxx τῶς οὐχὶ καὶ, Venet. μᾶλλον οὖν), like 12:32.[1] אבדּון has a meaning analogous to that of τάρταρος (cf. ταρταροῦν, 2Pe 2:4, to throw down into the τάρταρος), which denotes the lowest region of Hades (שׁאול תּחתּית or תּחתּיּה 'שׁ), and also in general, Hades. If אבדון and מות are connected, Job 37:22, and if אבדון is the parallel word to קבר, Psa 88:12, or also to שׁאול, as in the passage similar to this proverb, Job 26:6 (cf. Job 38:17): “Sheôl is naked before
- ↑ In Rabbin. this concluding form is called קל וחמר (light and heavy over against one another), and דּין (judgment, viz., from premisses, thus conclusion), κατ ̓ ἐξ. Instead of the biblical אף כי, the latter form of the language has כּל־שׁכּן (all speaks for it that it is so), על־אחת כּמּה וכמּה (so much the more), אינו דּין, or also קל וחמר (as minori ad majus = quanto magis); vid., the Hebr. Römerbrief, p. 14.
