Proverbs 3:21 - Exposition

My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. After the description of the power of Wisdom exhibited in creating and sustaining the earth, the exhortation to keep Wisdom steadily before the eyes, and the promises of Divine protection, appropriately follow. Since Wisdom is so powerful, then, the teacher argues, she is worthy of being retained and guarded, and able to protect. Let them not depart ( al-yaluzu ); i.e. "let them not escape or slip aside from your mind (cf. Vulgate, ne effluant haec ab oculis ruts ) . They are to be as frontiers between your eyes, as a ring upon your finger. Yaluzu, from luz , "to bend aside," defiectere, a via declinare, which see in Proverbs 2:15 , ought probably to be written yellezu, on the analogy of the corresponding passage in Proverbs 4:21 . The LXX . renders absolutely μὴ παραῤῥύης , "do not thou pass by," from παραῤῥύω , "to flow by," "to pass by, recede" (cf. Hebrews 2:1 , "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to these things, lest at any time we should let them slip ( μὴ ποτε παραῤῥυῶμεν )," quoted probably from the LXX . of this passage). The Targum Jonathan reads ne vilescat, "let it," i.e. wisdom, "not become worthless." Them, included in the verb yaluzu of which it is subject in the original, is to be referred either to "sound wisdom and discretion" of verse 21b—so Gejerus, Cartwright, Geier, Umbreit, Hitzig, Zockter, Plumptre (a similar trajection occurs in Deuteronomy 32:5 , and is used, as here, to give vividness to the description): or to "wisdom, understanding, knowledge," of the preceding verses—so Delitzsch and Holden. The first view in every way seems preferable, and it is no objection to it that "sound wisdom" ( tushiyyah ) and "discretion" ( m)yimmah ) are feminine, while the verb "depart" ( yaluzu ) is masculine. The Syriac reads, "Let it not become worthless ( ne vile fit ) in thine eyes to keep my doctrine and my counsels." Keep sound wisdom and discretion. Keep ; n ' zor, kal imperative of natsar, "to watch, guard." For "sound wisdom" ( tushiyyah ) , see Proverbs 2:7 . Here used for "wisdom" ( kokhmah ) , as "discretion" ( m'zimmah ) for "understanding" ( t'vunah ) , to contrast the absolute wisdom and insight of God with the corresponding attributes in man (see Zockler, in loc. ) . They belong to God, but are conferred on those who seek after Wisdom, and are then to be guarded as priceless treasures. The Vulgate reads, custodi legem et consilium ; and the LXX ; τήρησον δὲ ἐμὴν βουλὴν καὶ ἔννοιαν , " g uard my counsel and thought."