Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 11:30

A historical reference excerpt for this verse.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.

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. Proverbs 11:31

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