Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 4:18
A historical reference excerpt for this verse.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.
The two ways that lie for his choice before the youth, are distinguished from one another as light is from darkness: 18 And the path of the just is like the brightness of the morning light, Which shines more and more till the perfect day. 19 The way of the wicked is deep darkness, They know not at what they stumble. The Hebr. style is wont to conceal in its Vav (ו) diverse kinds of logical relations, but the Vav of 18a may suitably stand before 19a, where the discontinuance of this contrast of the two ways is unsuitable. The displacing of a Vav from its right position is not indeed without example (see under Psa 16:3); but since Pro 4:19 joins itself more easily than Pro 4:18 to Pro 4:17 without missing a particle, thus it is more probable that the two verses are to be transposed, than that the ו of וארח ( Pro 4:17) is to be prefixed to דּרך ( Pro 4:18). Sinning, says Pro 4:16, has become to the godless as a second nature, so that they cannot sleep without it; they must continually be sinning, adds Pro 4:17, for thus and not otherwise do they gain for themselves their daily bread. With reference to this fearful self-perversion to which wickedness has become a necessity and a condition of life, the poet further says that the way of the godless is כּאפלה, (Note: In good MSS and printed copies the כ has the Pathach, as Kimchi states the rule in Michlol 45a: כל כּאפלה פתח, כל כּאבנים פתח.) as deep darkness, as the entire absence of light: it cannot be otherwise than that they fall, but they do not at all know whereat they fall, for they do not at all know wickedness as such, and have no apprehension of the punishment which from an inward necessity it brings along with it; on the contrary, the path of the just is in constantly increasing light - the light of knowledge, and the light of true happiness which is given (Note: Hitzig inverts the order of Pro 4:18 and Pro 4:19, and connects the כּי of 16a immediately with Pro 4:19 (for the way of the wicked...). He moreover regards Pro 4:16, Pro 4:17 as an interpolation, and explains Pro 4:16 as a gloss transforming the text of Pro 4:19. "That the wicked commit wickedness," says Hitzig, "is indeed certain ( Sa1 24:14), and the warning of Pro 4:15 ought not to derive its motive from their energy in sinning." But the warning against the way of the wicked is founded not on their energy in sinning, but on their bondage to sin: their sleep, their food and drink - their life both when they sleep and when they wake - is conditioned by sin and is penetrated by sin. This foundation of the warning furnishes what is needed, and is in nothing open to objection. And that in Pro 4:16 and Pro 4:19 לא ירעוּ and לא ידעוּ, יכשׁולוּ and יכּשׁלוּ, נגזלה and כּאפלה seem to be alike, does not prove that Pro 4:16 originated as a parallel text from Pro 4:19 \- in the one verse as in the other the thoughts are original.) in and with knowledge. On בּמּה vid., under Isa 2:22; it is מכשׁול, σκάνδαλον, that is meant, stumbling against which (cf. Lev 26:37) they stumble to their fall. נגהּ, (Note: Bttcher, under Sa2 23:4, explains נגהּ of the brightness striking against, conquering (cf. נגח, נגף) the clouds; but ferire or percutere lies nearer (cf. נגע, Eze 17:10, נכה, Psa 121:6, and the Arab. darb, used of strong sensible impressions), as Silius, iv. 329, says of the light: percussit lumine campos.) used elsewhere than in the Bible, means the morning star (Venus), (Sirach 50:4, Syr.); when used in the Bible it means the e…
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