Proverbs 19:2

Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good,.... Without knowledge of things natural and civil, especially without the knowledge of God and Christ, and divine and spiritual things; to be without this is not good, yea, very bad; for men without such knowledge and understanding are, like the beasts that perish, and for lack of it do. Jarchi interprets it, without the law. Or, "to be without the knowledge of the soul is not good" (e); so the Targum, Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions, "he that knoweth not his soul, it is not good for him;'' that does not know he has a soul, or however takes no more care of it than if he had none; who knows not the worth and value of it, its state and condition, and the danger it is in, and the only way of attaining the salvation of it; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth; who engages in anything ignorantly and rashly, he misses the mark, and fails in the performance of it, for want of due consideration and care. The Targum is, "he that is swift with his feet to evil is a sinner;'' whose feet run to evil, to commit robbery, as Aben Ezra; or to shed blood; see Proverbs 1:16. (e) So Vatablus; or "without care of it", Schultcns.

2 . that the soul be without knowledge ] If with R.V. text we retain this rendering, we may well recognise in the rendering of R.V. marg. a true explanation of the proverb: “Desire without knowledge is not good; And he that hasteth with his feet misseth his way .” “The soul,” however fervently and however rightly it desires, needs knowledge to bring its desires to good effect. “Holy desires” must be directed by “good counsels,” if they are to issue in “just works.” And to start hastily on our path, whether material or moral, without such knowledge and counsel, is to miss our way; to wander, or to sin. sinneth ] Lit. misseth the mark . Comp. Jdg 20:16 .

The soul; which is the principal cause and director of all men’s actions. Without knowledge; without wisdom or prudence to discern his way, and what and how he ought to act in his several cases and concernments. It is not good; it is very evil and pernicious. That hasteth with his feet; that rashly and headily rusheth into actions without serious consideration. So two vices are here censured, the want of knowledge, and the neglect or disuse of knowledge in a man’s actions.

Verse 2. - Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good. "Also" ( gam ), Wordsworth would render "even," "even the soul, i.e. life itself, without knowledge is not a blessing;" it is βίπς οὐ βιωτός . At first sight it looks as if some verse, to which this one was appended, had fallen out; but there is no trace in the versions of any such loss. We have had a verse beginning in the same manner ( Proverbs 17:26 ), and here it seems to emphasize what follows - folly is bad, so is ignorance, when the soul lacks knowledge, i.e. when a man does not know what to do, how to act in the circumstances of his life, has in fact no practical wisdom. Other things "not good" are named in Proverbs 18:5 ; Proverbs 20:23 ; Proverbs 24:23 . And he that hasteth with his feet sinneth; misseth his way. Delitzsch confines the meaning of this hemistich to the undisciplined pursuit of knowledge: "He who hasteneth with the legs after it goeth astray," because he is neither intellectually nor morally clear as to his path or object. But the gnome is better taken in a more general sense. The ignorant man, who acts hastily without due deliberation, is sure to make grave mistakes, and to come to misfortune. Haste is opposed to knowledge, because the latter involves prudence and circumspection, while the former blunders on hurriedly, not seeing whither actions lead.

We all have occasion to note the proverbs, Festina lente ; "More haste, less speed." The history of Fabius, who, as Ennius said, "Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem," shows the value of deliberation and caution. The Greeks recognized this - Προπέτεια πολλοῖς ἐστὶν αἰτία κακῶν . "Rash haste is cause of evil unto many." Erasmus, in his 'Adagia,' has a long article commenting on Festinatio praepropera. The Arabs say," Patience is the key of joy, but haste is the key of sorrow." God is patient because he is eternal. Proverbs 19:2

2 The not-knowing of the soul is also not good, And he who hasteneth with the legs after it goeth astray. Fleischer renders נפשׁ as the subj. and לא־טוב as neut. pred.: in and of itself sensual desire is not good, but yet more so if it is without foresight and reflection. With this explanation the words must be otherwise accentuated. Hitzig, in conformity with the accentuation, before us: if desire is without reflection, it is also without success. But where נפשׁ denotes desire or sensuality, it is always shown by the connection, as e.g., Proverbs 23:2; here דּעת, referring to the soul as knowing (cf. Psalm 139:14), excludes this meaning. But נפשׁ is certainly gen. subjecti; Luzzatto's "self-knowledge" is untenable, for this would require דעת נפשׁו; Meri rightly glosses נפשׁ דעת by שׂכל. After this Zckler puts Hitzig's translation right in the following manner: where there is no consideration of the soul, there is no prosperity. But that also is incorrect, for it would require אין־טוב; לא־טוב is always pred., not a substantival clause.

Thus the proverb states that בלא־דעת נפשׁ is not good, and that is equivalent to היות בלא־דעת נפשׁ (for the subject to לא־טוב is frequently, as e.g., Proverbs 17:26; Proverbs 18:5, an infinitive); or also: בלא־דעת נפשׁ is a virtual noun in the sense of the not-knowing of the soul; for to say לא־דעת was syntactically inadmissible, but the expression is בלא־דעת, not בּלי דעת (בּבלי), because this is used in the sense unintentionally or unexpectedly. The גּם which begins the proverb is difficult. If we lay the principal accent in the translation given above on "not good," then the placing of גם first is a hyperbaton similar to that in Proverbs 17:26; Proverbs 20:11; cf. אך, Proverbs 17:11; רק, Proverbs 13:10, as if the words were: if the soul is without knowledge, then also (eo ipso) it is destitute of anything good. But if we lay the principal accent on the "also," then the meaning of the poet is, that ignorance of the soul is, like many other things, not good; or (which we prefer without on that account maintaining (Note: The old interpreters and also the best Jewish interpreters mar the understanding and interpretation of the text, on the one side, by distinguishing between a nearest and a deeper meaning of Scripture (דרך נגלה and דרך נסתר); on the other by this, that they suppose an inward connection of all the proverbs, and expend useless ingenuity in searching after the connection.