Proverbs 25:11

11. A word fitly spoken The margin reads, “spoken upon his wheels.” Compare Proverbs 15:23. That is, as Clarke explains, comes in naturally, runs smoothly, appears to be without design, rises out of the conversation, etc. With this accord many of the older interpreters. But later expositors, as also some of the ancients, do not regard the word אפניו , ( ophnayv,) as derived from אופן , ( ophan,) a wheel, but from, אפן , ( ophen,) time, season, etc.; a word in season at the fitting time. This is preferable.

Apples of gold in pictures of silver Various are the renderings of this clause. “An apple of gold in a sardine (cornelian) collar.” Septuagint. “Apples of gold in beds of silver.” Vulgate. “Apples of gold among picturework of silver.” Stuart. “Among figures of silver.” Boothroyd, Noyes. “In framework of silver.” Zockler. “In curiously wrought baskets of silver.” Holden. “In a silver network basket.” Patrick. “As golden fruit in baskets of silver.” Muenscher. “Ingravings.” Conant. Paraphrased by Dr. Adam Clarke: “Like the refreshing orange or beautiful citron served up in open-work or filigree baskets made of silver.” The principle point of difference among the critics is, whether the allusion is to real fruit in real baskets, or to pictures of fruit in baskets. The “idea,” says Stuart, “is that of a garment of precious stuff in which are introduced golden apples among picturework of silver.” This theory is favoured by the word משׂכיות , ( maski-yyoth,) rendered in our version pictures, in others picturework, etc. The word and its cognates are used in the sense of pictures, resemblances, representations, engravings, sculptures, imagery, etc., in sundry places. Isaiah 20:10; Leviticus 26:1; Numbers 33:52; Ezekiel 8:12, etc. But the note of Dr. Clarke sufficiently accounts for the use of this word here on the other theory.

“The Asiatics,” says he, “excel in filigree silverwork. I have seen much of it, and it is exquisitely beautiful. The silver wire, by which it is done, they form into the appearance of numerous flowers… I have seen animals of this filigree work, with all their limbs, and every joint in its natural play. Fruit-baskets are made in this way, and are exquisitely fine. The wise man seems to have this kind of work particularly in view, and the contrast of the golden yellow fruit in the exquisitely wrought silver baskets, which may all be termed picturework, has a fine and pleasing effect upon the eye, as the contained fruit has upon the palate, at an entertainment in a sultry climate.” The comparison teaches that an agreeable medium greatly enhances the attractiveness of truth; that appropriate words, uttered at a fitting time, are sure to be acceptable and effective. Muenscher. It is generally agreed that the apples of the verse are not our apples, but a fruit of the lemon kind, probably the citron some think the quince; but the golden yellow citron is excellent and greatly relished. The citron trees were also very beautiful. The goodly trees in Leviticus 23:40 are explained by the Targum as the citron tree. The Rabbins say, that the first “fruits of them were carried to the temple in silver baskets.”