Proverbs 30:13

30:10 Slander not a servant to his master, accuse him not in small matters, to make mischief. 11-14. In every age there are monsters of ingratitude who ill-treat their parents. Many persuade themselves they are holy persons, whose hearts are full of sin, and who practise secret wickedness. There are others whose lofty pride is manifest. There have also been cruel monsters in every age. 15-17. Cruelty and covetousness are two daughters of the horseleech, that still cry, Give, give, and they are continually uneasy to themselves. Four things never are satisfied, to which these devourers are compared. Those are never rich that are always coveting. And many who have come to a bad end, have owned that their wicked courses began by despising their parents' authority. 18-20. Four things cannot be fully known. The kingdom of nature is full of marvels. The fourth is a mystery of iniquity; the cursed arts by which a vile seducer gains the affections of a female; and the arts which a vile woman uses to conceal her wickedness. 21-23 Four sorts of persons are very troublesome. Men of low origin and base spirit, who, getting authority, become tyrants. Foolish and violent men indulging in excesses. A woman of a contentious spirit and vicious habits. A servant who has obtained undue influence. Let those whom Providence has advanced from low beginnings, carefully watch against that sin which most easily besets them.

There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. Above others, on whom they look with scorn and contempt; as those do who have more riches than others, and boast of them; they despise their poor neighbours, and disdain to look upon them: and such also who have more knowledge and wisdom than others, or at least think so; they are puffed up in their fleshly minds, and say of the illiterate or less knowing, as the proud Pharisees did, "this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed": and likewise those who fancy themselves more holy and righteous than others; these, in a scornful manner, say, "stand by thyself, I am holier than thou"; and thank God they are not as other men are, as publicans and sinners; see Proverbs 19:4 . Hence Pliny (i) says, that in the eyebrows there is a part of the mind; those especially show haughtiness; that pride has a receptacle elsewhere, but here it has its seat; it is bred in the heart, but here it comes and here it hangs: wherefore Juvenal (k) calls pride and haughtiness, "grande supercilium"; and proud haughty persons are said to be supercilious. (i) Nat. Hist. 1. 11. c. 37. (k) Satyr. 6. v. 168.

11-14. Four kinds of hateful persons—(1) graceless children, (2) hypocrites, (3) the proud, (4) cruel oppressors (compare on Pr 30:14; Ps 14:4; 52:2)—are now illustrated; (1) Pr 30:15, 16, the insatiability of prodigal children and their fate; (2) Pr 30:17, hypocrisy, or the concealment of real character; (3 and 4) Pr 30:18-20, various examples of pride and oppression.

Verse 13. - A generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes! The third sin is pride and arrogance (see on Proverbs 6:17; 21:4). "Lord," said the psalmist, "my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty" ( Psalm 131:1 ). The prophet rebukes "the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks" ( Isaiah 10:12 ). Their eyelids are lifted up; in supercilious disdain. "Inde Proverbio dicimus," says Erasmus ('Adag.'), "attolli supercilium, fastidium indicantes" ( s . v . "Arrogantia"). Proverbs 30:13

There now follows a Priamel, (Note: Cf. vol. i. p. 13. The name (from praeambulum) given to a peculiar form of popular gnomic poetry which prevailed in Germany from the 12th (e.g., the Meistersinger or Minstrel Sparvogel) to the 16th century, but was especially cultivated during the 14th and 15th centuries. Its peculiarity consisted in this, that after a series of antecedents or subjects, a briefly-expressed consequent or predicate was introduced as the epigrammatic point applicable to all these antecedents together. Vid., Erschenburg's Denkmlern altdeutscher Dichtkinst, Bremen 1799.) the first line of which is, by יקלל, connected with the יקללך of the preceding distich: 11 A generation that curseth their father, And doth not bless their mother; 12 A generation pure in their own eyes, And yet not washed from their filthiness; 13 A generation - how haughty their eyes, And their eyelids lift themselves up; 14 A generation whose teeth are swords and their jaw teeth knives To devour the poor from the earth and the needy from the midst of men. Ewald translates: O generation! but that would have required the word, 13a, הדּור (Jeremiah 2:31), and one would have expected to have found something mentioned which the generation addressed were to take heed to; but it is not so. But if "O generation!" should be equivalent to "O regarding the generation!" then הוי ought to have introduced the sentence.

And if we translate, with Luther: There is a generation, etc., then ישׁ is supplied, which might drop out, but could not be omitted. The lxx inserts after ἔκγονον the word κακόν, and then renders what follows as pred. - a simple expedient, but worthless. The Venet. does not need this expedient, for it renders γενεὰ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ βλασφημέσει; but then the order of the words in 11a would have been דור יקלל אביו; and in 12a, after the manner of a subst. clause, דור טהור בעיניו הוא, one sees distinctly, from Proverbs 30:13 and Proverbs 30:14, that what follows דור is to be understood, not as a pred., but as an attributive clause. As little can we interpret Proverbs 30:14, with Lwenstein, as pred. of the three subj., "it is a generation whose teeth are swords;" that would at least have required the words דור הוא; but Proverbs 30:14 is not at all a judgment valid for all the three subjects. The Targ. and Jerome translate correctly, as we above; (Note: The Syr. begins 11a as if הוי were to be supplied.) but by this rendering there are four subjects in the preamble, and the whole appears, since the common pred. is wanting, as a mutilated Priamel.

30 . The owner of the ox may, however, escape the extreme penalty of the law, if the relatives of the man who had been killed are willing to accept a money-compensation for his life. The owner’s negligence amounted to murder only in theory, so it was reasonable to allow him his merciful alternative. be laid on him (cf. v. 22)] viz. by the relatives of the man who has been killed. a ransom ] Heb. kôpher , the price of a life: see Exodus 30:12 , Psalm 49:7 , Proverbs 6:35 ; Proverbs 13:8 ; Proverbs 21:18 , Isaiah 43:3 . This and v. 32 are the only cases in which Heb. law allowed what was so common among many ancient nations, the ποινή , or ‘wergild,’ i.e. the money offered for the life of a murdered man to appease a kinsman’s wrath: see Numbers 35:31 f. (P), where the acceptance of a kôpher is forbidden. redemption ] The same word, in a similar connexion, Psalm 49:8 (where ‘soul’ = ‘life’ here, lit. soul ). For the corresponding verb, used of the redemption of a life that is forfeit, see on Exodus 13:13 .

## (1.) In single men, the essential parts are put for the whole man; as the soul (XXXX Nephesh ) for man, Genesis 12:5,13; 17:14; Exodus 12:19; Psalms 3:2; 11:1; 25:13; Isaiah 58:5; Ezekiel 18:4; Luke 6:9; Acts 2:43 , and many other places, &c. Sometimes it is said that the soul, may die or be killed, Numbers 23:10; Judges 16:30; Job 36:14; John 4:8 , where the body must be understood. It is put for any brute, Genesis 1:24 , (&c.) A body is put for man, Exodus 21:3 , where the Hebrew is body; See Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:15 . James 3:6 . The integral parts of man, are put for the man or his body or flesh; Genesis 17:13; Psalms 16:9; Proverbs 14:30 . See Acts 2:26,31; John 6:51 , (which is expounded, Luke 22:19; 2 Corinthians 7:1 .) Flesh is put for the whole man, Genesis 6:12; Luke 3:6; Romans 3:20 . 1 Corinthians 1:29 ; for every living creature, Genesis 6:13,17 . Blood, is put for man, Psalms 94:21; Proverbs 1:11; Matthew 27:4; Acts 17:26 . The head is put for man, Judges 5:30; 2 Kings 2:3; 2 Samuel 1:16; Acts 18:6 . See other examples, Genesis 19:21; Matthew 13:16; Proverbs 8:13; Titus 1:12; Judges 5:30; Genesis 31:26 , where the Hebrew is, "What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away my heart?" when he meant himself, as verse 27, Chaldee, "Thou hast stole myself."