Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 10:23
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
23 Like sport to a fool is the commission of a crime; And wisdom to a man of understanding. Otherwise Lwenstein: to a fool the carrying out of a plan is as sport; to the man of understanding, on the contrary, as wisdom. זמּה, from זמם, to press together, mentally to think, as Job 17:11, and according to Gesenius, also Pro 21:27; Pro 24:9. But זמּה has the prevailing signification of an outrage against morality, a sin of unchastity; and especially the phrase עשׂה זמּה is in Jdg 20:6 and in Ezekiel not otherwise used, so that all the old interpreters render it here by patrare scelus; only the Targum has the equivocal עבד עבידתּא; the Syriac, however, 'bd bı̂\_taa'. Sinful conduct appears to the fool, who places himself above the solemnity of the moral law, as sport; and wisdom, on the contrary, (appears as sport) to a man of understanding. We would not venture on this acceptation of כּשׂחוק if שׂחק were not attributed, Pro 8:30., to wisdom itself. This alternate relationship recommends itself by the indetermination of חכמהו, which is not favourable to the interpretation: sed sapientiam colit vir intelligens, or as Jerome has it: sapientia autem est viro prudentia. The subjects of the antithesis chiastically combine within the verse: חכמה, in contrast to wicked conduct, is acting in accordance with moral principles. This to the man of understanding is as easy as sporting, just as to the fool is shameless sinning; for he follows in this an inner impulse, it brings to him joy, it is the element in which he feels himself satisfied. Proverbs 10:24
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