anything, their wish reaches to no other than a fortunate issue; but if the godless hope for anything, then there is to them in the end as their portion, not the good they hoped for, but wrath (Pro 10:28, cf. Pro 11:4). However, that עברה is at once to be understood thus, as in יום עברה, and that the phrase is to be rendered: the hope of the godless is God's wrath, is doubtful. But עברה denotes also want of moderation, and particularly in the form of presumption, Pro 21:24, Isa 16:6; and thus we gain the thought that the desire of the righteous is directed only to that which is good, and thus to an object that is attainable because well-pleasing to God, while on the contrary the hope of the godless consists only in the suggestions of their presumption, and thus is vain self-deceit. The punctuation תאות צדיקים is contrary to rule; correct texts have תאות צדיקים, for Dechî stands before Athnach only if the Athnach-word has two syllables (Torath Emeth, p. 43; Accentssystem, xviii. §4).
Verse 24
Three proverbs regarding giving which is not loss but gain. 24 There is one who giveth bounteously, and he increaseth still more; And (there is) one who withholdeth what is due, only to his loss.
The first of the proverbs with ישׁ (there is), which are peculiar to the first collection (vid., p. 32). The meaning is, that the possessions of the liberal giver do not decrease but increase, and that, on the contrary, the possessions of the niggardly do not increase but decrease. מפזּר is not to be understood after Psa 112:9. Instead of ונוסף עוד the three Erfurt codd. have ונוסף (with retrogression of the tone?), which Hitzig approves of; but the traditional phrase which refers (et qui augetur insuper) ונוסף not to the possession of him who scattereth, but to himself, is finer in the expression. In the characteristic of the other, מיּשׁר is commonly interpreted comparatively: plus aequo (Cocceius) or justo (Schelling). But מן after חשׂך is to be regarded as governed by it, and ישׁר denotes not competence, riches, as Arab. yusr (Bertheau, Zöckler), also not uprightness = beneficence (Midrash, מן הצדקה), but duty, uprightness, as Job 33:23, where it denotes that which is advantageous to man, as here that which befits him: he who holds back, namely himself, from that which is due to himself, and thus should permit to himself, such an one profits nothing at all by this ἀφειδία (17b, Col 2:23), but it tends only to loss to him, only to the lessening of that which he possesses. We shall meet with this (למחסּור) אך למחסור Pro 14:23, and frequently again - it is a common Mashal formula (cf. καὶ τόσῳ μᾶλλον ὑστερεῖται, Sir. 11:11). The
