(18.) By idlenesses (Proverbs xix. 15 only; but עצל, ‘the sluggard,’ occurs continually in Proverbs, and once as a verb, Judges xviii. 9. The word is pointed as a dual, but the meaning ‘idlenesses’ suits the context) decayeth (מכך, occurs Kal, Psalms cvi. 43, niphal here, and hiphil Job xxiv. 24, all) the beam (הַמְּקָרֶה here only, but the word differs only in pointing from הַמִקְרֶה——the hap, and the equivoke could hardly be unintentional), and in lowness of hands drops (occurs Job xvi. 20, Psalms cxix. 28; but notice the readings of the LXX., which are peculiar) the house.
19 ¶ A feast is made for laughter, and wine [¹]maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
[¹] Hebrew maketh glad the life.
For pleasure they make bread, and wine rejoices life, but silver subserves with respect to everything.
(19.) To laughter are makings (which the LXX. renders by ποιοῦσιν, ‘they make’) bread and wine rejoices (the Masorets consider this a piel and transitive) lives, and the silver (with the article, and therefore generic——money) answereth with respect to all things (both senses of יענה are given in the versions of the LXX. ἐπακούσεται, Alexandrine, ‘humbly obeys,’ and ταπεινώσει, Vatican, ‘will humble.’ The Alexandrine also reads σὺν τὰ πάντα. The Syriac reads also double, as do some copies of the LXX.——
