conduct manifests itself. The Piel הלּך expresses firm, constant action; and בּתוך means that she turns from this line of conduct on no side. להנחיל is distinguished from בּהנחיל, as ut possidendam tribuam from possidendam tribuendo; the former denotes the direction of the activity, the latter its nature and manner; both combine if we translate ita ut....[1]
Regarding the origin of ישׁ, vid., at Pro 2:7; it denotes the being founded, thus substantia, and appears here, like the word in mediaeval Latin and Romanic (Ital. sustanza, Span. substancia), and like οὐσία and ὕπαρξις (τὰ ὑπάρχοντα) in classic Greek, to denote possessions and goods. But since this use of the word does not elsewhere occur (therefore Hitzig explains ישׁ = ישׁ לי, I have it = presto est), and here, where Wisdom speaks, ישׁ connects itself in thought with תּוּשׁיּה, it will at least denote real possession (as we also are wont to call not every kind of property, but only landed property, real possession), such possession as has real worth, and that not according to commercial exchange and price, but according to sound judgment, which applies a higher than the common worldly standard of worth. The Pasek between אהבי and ישׁ is designed to separate the two Jods from each other, and has, as a consequence, for להנחיל אהבי the accentuation with Tarcha and Mercha (vid., Accentssystem, vi. §4; cf. Torath Emeth, p. 17, §3). The carrying forward of the inf. with the finite, 21b, is as Pro 1:27; Pro 2:2, and quite usual.
Verse 22
Wisdom takes now a new departure, in establishing her right to be heard, and to be obeyed and loved by men. As the Divine King in Psa 2:1-12 opposes to His adversaries the self-testimony: “I will speak concerning a decree! Jahve said unto me: Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee;” so Wisdom here unfolds her divine patent of nobility: she originates with God before all creatures, and is the object of God's love and joy, as she also has the object of her love and joy on God's earth, and especially among the sons of men: “Jahve brought me forth as the beginning of His way,
As the foremost of His works from of old.”
The old translators render קנני (with Kametz by Dechî; vid., under Psa 118:5) partly by verbs of creating (lxx ἔκτισε, Syr.,
- ↑ Biesenthal combines the etymologically obscure הנחיל with נחל: to make to flow into, so that נחל denotes inheritance in contradistinction to acquisition; while נחלה, in contradistinction to ירשּׁה, denotes the inheritance rather of many than of the individual.
