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Bible - OT - Proverbs: Proverbs 28:7-9

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PROVERBS 28:7

We again have a proverb about torah and knowledge. The one who keeps watch over torah is a son who knows. The word translated as “wise” in the NASB is a form of the verb byn, used in verse 5. Here, the verb puns with the word for son, ben. The son who guards torah becomes more fully son, a son who knows, a ben mebyn.

The son who spends his time in the company of drunks and gluttons brings shame to his father. The word “riotous” is translated elsewhere as “glutton” (Deuteronomy 21:20, the passage about the rebellious son). The Hebrew is zalel, and may have some kind of punning connection with the verb “praise,” halel. Gluttony and drunkenness are a kind of false worship, a counterfeit form of the joy of the presence of God.

Clearly, there is a contrast between guarding the law and getting involved in drunkenness and gluttony. But there is also a contrast between the law and companionship with drunkards and gluttons. Torah is the chief companion of the knowing son, the companion he spends most of his time with, the friendship he spends his time cultivating. The contrast of the “knowing son” with the “shaming son” implies that the knowing son brings honor rather than shame to his father.

The word for “companion” is ro’eh, which in both its verbal and noun forms more typically means “shepherd.” In the AV, the word is translated as “companion” only twice, company once, and feed, shepherd, herdsman, or keep nearly 150 times. In some contexts, it appears to mean “delight in” something or “seek after.” But the connotation of shepherding is not absent from these uses either. The proverb is not simply presenting the son as a “companion” of gluttons but as a “herder” or “shepherd” of gluttons. He’s the one who leads them to green pastures and beside still waters. He’s the one who keeps watch over the drunkards, and thus forms a very precise and sharp contrast with the one who “watches over,” “preserves,” and “guards” torah.

PROVERBS 28:8

This proverb has a fairly clear chiastic structure to it. At least, it is surrounded by an inclusio of verbs of “increase” or “accumulation.”

A. The one who increases

B. his substance

C. by usury and unjust gain

B’. for the one who pities the poor

A’. he gathers it.

The links of the B sections are clearer in the Hebrew. “Substance” translates hon and the verb for pit is chanan. The chiastic structure figures the substance of the verse. The verse is about Yahweh’s ironic reversal of the attempt to accumulate wealth unjustly, and the verse depicts this reversal in chastic outline. Those who abuse the poor with harsh and unjust business practices are, by Yahweh’s clever design, actually accumulating money that will go to the poor. This is a common pattern in Scripture: Wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous.

The torah condemns usury (nesek, “bite”; tarbit appears to be a synonym, but is perhaps more general, based on the verb for “increase”) in a number of passages (Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:36-37; Deuteronomy 23:17), and Ezekiel reiterates the condemnation (Ezekiel18:8, 13, 17; 22:12). In each passage, the setting has to do with poverty relief: Ruben becomes poor and needs help to pay his bills and buy food for his family; if Judah offers to loan him money, he is not permitted to charge any form of interest on the loan. These passages don’t envision business loans one way or another.

PROVERBS 28:9

Again Solomon speaks of our attitude toward torah. The central command of the law was a command to “hear” (Deuteronomy 6). It was a command addressed to the ear. But the one who refuses to hear the law, to listen and obey, becomes an abomination to Yahweh. Yahweh will refuse to listen to his prayers. If he turns a deaf ear to Yahweh, Yahweh will in turn turn a deaf ear to him.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 6:46 am

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Bible - OT - Proverbs: Proverbs 28:7-9

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