(3.) And moreover in the way (which word ‘way’ is so constantly used in an ethical sense——Psalms cxix. 1——that we cannot overlook it here) like that which is the wise fool’s (the Masorets notice the article here, and pronounce it superfluous, but it is not so; for the meaning is, that it is like the perversely wise fool’s way generically, in this) that as he walks, his heart (the third time ‘heart’ has occurred in this passage, raising the word into great emphasis and importance), fails (the Authorized Version considers this to mean a failure in wisdom, but it is rather a failure of confidence, which is the ethical meaning of the term ‘heart’) and says (the nearest nominative is לב, heart, and so the LXX. understood, for they render ἃ λογιεῖται, κ.τ.λ. ‘that which he thinks of’ is folly; this makes good sense) to all, perverse folly it is (emphatic, hence the meaning is, ‘he is out of heart altogether,’ or ‘his heart misgives him;’ and it says, ‘what perverse folly it all really is.’ Conscience convicts those clever wicked plans, and they who devise them know that they are only elaborate mistakes).
4 If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.
If the spirit of the ruling one should go forth against thee, thy station do not quit, because a remedy may cure wicked errors which are great.
(4.) If a spirit of the ruling one (not, as usually rendered, the ruler, which does not exactly convey the idea) goes up against thee (the LXX. show that they so understood it by rendering πνεῦμα τοῦ ἐξουσιάζοντος) thy place do not yield (the sense of the passage is, ‘If there be too strong a spirit against you, if you are sailing, as it were, in the teeth of the wind, do not yield when you have good grounds for remaining:’ this makes excellent sense, is cognate to the accompanying passages, and follows the LXX.) for a healing (מרפא, occurs Proverbs xiv. 30 and xv. 4 only, the LXX. read ἴαμα, ‘a remedy’) pacifies mistakes (with the usual idea of culpability attaching to this word) great ones (the idea is ‘do not yield to mere adverse circumstances when even culpable mistakes admit of a remedy.’)
5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth [¹]from the ruler:
[¹] Hebrew from before.