Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 18:12
A historical reference excerpt for this verse.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.
We place together Pro 18:12-19, in which the figure of a secure fortress returns: Pro 18:12 This proverb is connected with the preceding of the rich man who trusts in his mammon. Before destruction the heat of man is haughty; And humility goeth before honour. Line first is a variation of Pro 16:18, and line second is similar to Pro 15:33. Pro 18:13 13 If one giveth an answer before he heareth, It is to him as folly and shame. The part. stands here differently from what it does at Pro 13:18, where it is subj., and at Pro 17:14, where it is pred. of a simple sentence; it is also here, along with what appertains to it in accordance with the Semitic idiom, subj. to 13b (one who answers ... is one to whom this...); but, in accordance with our idiom, it becomes a hypothetical antecedent. For "to answer" one also uses השׁיב without addition; but the original full expression is השׁיב דּבר, reddere verbum, referre dictum (cf. ענה דּבר, Jer 44:20, absol. in the cogn., Pro 15:28); דבר one may not understand of the word to which, but of the word with which, the reply is made. היא לו comprehends the meaning: it avails to him (ducitur ei), as well as it reaches to him (est ei). In Agricola's Fnfhundert Sprchen this proverb is given thus: Wer antwortet ehe er hret, der zaiget an sein torhait und wirdt ze schanden \[he who answers before he hears shows his folly, and it is to him a shame\]. But that would require the word to be יבושׁ, pudefiet; (היא לו) כּלמּה means that it becomes to him a ground of merited disgrace. "כּלמּה, properly wounding, i.e., shame (like atteinte son honneur), from כּלם (cogn. הלם), to strike, hit, wound" (Fl.). Sirach (11:8) warns against such rash talking, as well as against the rudeness of interrupting others. Pro 18:14 14 The spirit of a man beareth his sickness; But a broken spirit, who can bear it? The breath of the Creator imparting life to man is spoken of as spiritus spirans, רוּח (רוּח חיּים), and as spiritus spiratus, נפשׁ (נפשׁ חיּה); the spirit (animus) is the primary, and the soul (anima) the secondary principle of life; the double gender of רוח is accounted for thus: when it is thought of as the primary, and thus in a certain degree (vid., Psychol. p. 103ff.) the manly principle, it is mas. ( Gen 6:3; Psa 51:12, etc.). Here the change of gender is in the highest degree characteristic, and אישׁ also is intentionally used (cf. Sa1 26:15) instead of אדם, 16a: the courageous spirit of a man which sustains or endures (כּלכּל R. כל, comprehendere, prehendere; Luther, "who knows how to contain himself in his sufferings;" cf. Psa 51:12, "may the free Spirit hold me") the sickness \[Siechthum\] (we understand here "siech" in the old meaning = sick) with self-control, is generis masculini; while, on the contrary, the רוּח נכאה (as Pro 15:13; Pro 17:22), brought down from its manliness and superiority to disheartened passivity, is genere feminino (cf. Psa 51:12 with Pro 18:19). Fleischer compares the Arab. proverb, thbât âlnfs bâlghdhâ thbât alrwh balghnâ, the soul has firmness by nourishment, the spirit by music. (Note: In the Arab. language, influenced by philosophy, rwh, the anima vitalis, and nfs, the anima rationalis, are inverted; vid., Baudissin's Translationis antiquae Arab. libri Jobi quae supersunt (1870), p. 34.) The question מי ישּׂאנּה is like Mar 9:50 : if the salt becomes tasteless, wherewith shall one season it? There is no seasoning for the spice that has become insipid. And for the spirit which i…
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