Proverbs 11:21

21. Though hand join in hand Another disputed passage. יד ליד , ( yadh leyadh,) hand to hand, was, likely, an elliptical phrase, with a conventional sense well understood at the time, but uncertain to us. The common acceptation of it is co-partnership; that is, a confederacy of wicked men binding one another by oath, in which they joined hands; a powerful combination to effect an evil result. Another sense sometimes given to it is, hand added to hand, as the emblem of strength and exertion: that is, let the wicked exert himself to his utmost with both hands, he shall not be acquitted or innocent; but the seed of the righteous the righteous generation or race shall be delivered. Compare Proverbs 16:5, for a similar expression. The first part of this verse may receive illustration by the following, from Bruce: “The great people among them (the shepherds of Suakem) came, and, after joining hands, repeated a kind of prayer of about two minutes long, by which they declared themselves and their children accursed if they ever lifted their hands against me, in the tell or in the field, in the desert or on the river; or in case I or mine should fly to them for refuge, if they did not protect us at the risk of their lives, their families, and their fortunes, or, as they emphatically expresses it, to the death of the last male child among them.”