[61] Horton, Proverbs (Expositor’s Bible), p. 347.
[62] See below, ch. X., p. 184f.
[63] Toy justly remarks, “The motive here assigned—fear of Jehovah’s displeasure—belongs to the ethical system of Proverbs. But this motive does not impair the dignity of the moral standard presented. Jehovah’s displeasure is the expression of the moral ideal: it is one’s duty, says the proverb, not to rejoice at the misfortunes of enemies. This duty is enforced by a reference to compensation, but it remains a duty.”
[64] “The antithesis is ethical, not merely intellectual. The meaning is not that the righteous speaks cautiously, the wicked inconsiderately; but that the good man takes care to speak what is true and kind, whilst the bad man, feeling no concern on this point, follows the bent of his mind and so speaks evil.” (Toy ad. loc.).
[65] cp. Romans 1210, and also p. 268.
[66] Wise Men of Israel, p. 158.
[67] (Pr. 3110-29). The poem is in the Hebrew an alphabetical acrostic, which accounts for certain repetitions and roughnesses in the movement of the thought.
[68] Cp. Luke 163 (see Oesterley in The Expositor for April, 1903).
[69] Oesterley, Ecclesiasticus, p. xviii.
[70] E. 42, 43.