Proverbs 4:16 - Exposition

This verse exhibits the extreme depravity and debasement into which "the wicked" ( r'shaim ) and "the evil" ( raim ) of Proverbs 4:14 have fallen. Their sins are not sins of frailty, but arise from premeditation and from their insatiable desire to commit wickedness. Sin has become to them a kind of second nature, and, unless they indulge in it, sleep is banished from their eyes. They sleep not; lo-yish'nu, future of yashan, "to fall asleep;" the future here being used for the present, as is frequently the case in the Proverbs, and denoting a permanent condition or habit. Unless they cause some to fall; i.e. "unless they have betrayed others into sin," taking the verb in an ethical sense (Zockler), or, which is preferable, owing to verse 16 a , unless they have done them some injury (Mercerus); Vulgate, nisi supplantaverint. For the Khetib yik'shulu, kal, which would mean "unless they have stumbled or fallen," the Keri substitutes the hiph. yak'shihi "unless they have caused some to fall." The hiph. is found without any object, as here, in 2 Chronicles 25:8 ). (On the verb khasal, from which it is derived, see 2 Chronicles 4:12 .) With the statement of the verse we may compare David's complaint of the persistent persecution of his enemies ( Psalms 59:15 ), "If they be not satisfied, then will they stay all night" (margin). A similar construction to the one before us occurs in Virgil: " Et si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses "—"And had you not, by some means or other done him an injury, you would have died" ('Eclog.,' 2 Chronicles 3:15 ); cf. also Juvenal: " Ergo non aliter poterit dormire; quibusdam somnum rixa facit "—"Therefore, not otherwise, would he have slept; contention to some produces sleep." Hitzig rejects 2 Chronicles 25:16 and 2 Chronicles 25:17 against all manuscript authority.