it with הלין, instead of the meaning to take away, efficere ut recedat (cf. under Pro 2:15). This supposed causative meaning it has also here: may they = may one (vid., under Pro 2:22) not remove them from thine eyes; the object is (Pro 4:20) the words of the paternal admonition. Hitzig, indeed, observes that “the accusative is not supplied;” but with greater right it is to be remarked that ילּיזוּ (fut. Hiph. of לוּז) and ילוּזוּ (fut. Kal of id.) are not one and the same, and the less so as הלּיז occurs, but the masoretical and grammatical authorities (e.g., Kimchi) demand ילּיזוּ. The plur. למצאיהם is continued, 22b, in the sing., for that which is said refers to each one of the many (Pro 3:18, Pro 3:28, Pro 3:35). מצא is fundamentally an active conception, like our “finden,” to find; it means to attain, to produce, to procure, etc. מרפּא means, according as the מ is understood of the “that = ut” of the action or of the “what” of its performance, either health or the means of health; here, like רפאוּת, Pro 3:8, not with the underlying conception of sickness, but of the fluctuations connected with the bodily life of man, which make needful not only a continual strengthening of it, but also its being again and again restored. Nothing preserves soul and body in a healthier state than when we always keep before our eyes and carry in our hearts the good doctrines; they give to us true guidance on the way of life: “Godliness has the promise of this life, and of that which is to come.” 1Ti 4:8.
Verses 23-27
After this general preface the exhortation now becomes special: 23 Above all other things that are to be guarded, keep thy heart, For out from it life has its issues. 24 Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, And waywardness of lips put far from thee. 25 Thine eyes should look straight forward, And thine eyelids look straight to the end before thee. 26 Make even the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be correct. 27 Turn not aside to the right and to the left; Remove thy foot from evil.
Although משׁמר in itself and in this connection may mean the object to be watchfully avoided (cavendi) (vid., under Pro 2:20): thus the usage of the language lying before us applies it, yet only as denoting the place of watching or the object observandi; so that it is not to be thus explained, with Raschi and others: before
